High, Wide And Handsome (1937)

Set in 1859, a traveling show breaks down in a small Pennsylvania town. The show's singer (Irene Dunne) and an aspiring oilman (Randolph Scott) fall in love and get married. But his ambitions for an oil empire puts a strain on their marriage. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian (LOVE ME TONIGHT), this odd musical doesn't feel like a musical. In fact, its songs seem superfluous. The movie would work perfectly well without the songs. The songs by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein are okay with only one, the lovely The Folks Who Live On The Hill, that really stands out. Dunne and Scott (who had co-starred in ROBERTA two years earlier) have a nice chemistry which helps the movie enormously. A pleasant if unmemorable diversion. With Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, Charles Bickford, Elizabeth Patterson and Alan Hale.