Review of Music in Manhattan

Anne Shirley finds her flop Broadway revue suddenly a smash hit when she ends up in a mistaken publicity article as falsely married to a war hero. Philip Terry is the poor sap, actually involved with Shirley's co-star, who ends up in the same hotel room with her in an overcrowded Washington, and for some reason, this publicity sends the Broadway theater's box office getting lines around the corner. (I guess RKO Radio hadn't checked out the ratio of those going to see "Oklahoma!" to those seeing typical Broadway fare in the mid 1940's). The audience seen in the opening number resembles that of the most panned flops today, and all it took was one columnist to mention her about-to-close show in the newspaper to turn the tide. Toss in Jane Darwell half way through the film as the suddenly arrived soldier's mother, and you're gonna groan your way through the remainder of the film. This pain in the rear mother-in-law loves her "new" daughter-in-law so much she does everything but move a cot into the bedroom with the new couple, while Shirley's real fiancée (Don Beddoe) tries to sneak Terry out. An embarrassing script with awkward performances and some not so jazzy jitterbug numbers, this rates among the lowest of the low.