Born to Sing (1942)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Damon Runyon like yarn with the wealthy coming to bat for the downtrodden at the very end.A just released Leo Gorcey, acting like Brooklyn all the way, comes upon Virginia Wiedler and her father. The latter has had his music stolen from him while he had been imprisoned. The gang has to find a way to turn the tables on the crooked theatrical producer.Playing his usual gangster self, Sheldon Leonard provides help for the group in order to get out of his own predicament.The highlight of the film is when the theater patrons are kidnapped so that they can see the group put on the show with the stolen music. As a society matron, Margaret Dumont provides hilarity. Just too bad that she, Leonard and Connie Gilchrist, as a social worker aren't used more.Very entertaining music with that patriotic ending just great.

This is such an interesting film, if as the previous comments attest to, some details that even I never knew, IE: The finale that was originally part of the WPA (ask kids today what THAT was!) and the Federal Theater Project's contribution to the Depression. What I found interesting/sad/macabre, was how many of the young actors in that film met an early demise. On the IMDb site itself:1)Virginia Weidler: Heart attack, age 412)Larry Nunn: Self inflicted gun shot wound, age 493)Ray McDonald: Death by choking on food in hotel room, age 344)Ben Carter, age 355)Leo Gorcey: Liver failure, age 536)Douglas McPhail: poison, after 1st failed suicide attempt,age 307)Rags Ragland: uremic poisoning, age 408)Darla Hood: died in North Hollywood following a relatively minoroperation of acute hepatitis under "mysteriouscircumstances", age 479)Richard Haydel, age 22 Was this film cursed? Or did actors die quicker then?

I agree with the previous comment. The film was quite entertaining. My sister and I laughed through much of it. It may not have been a Mickey and Judy "Let's put on a show!" but I think it was just as good. I only found one fault with it. The finale with Douglas McPhail was completely out of place. It just doesn't fit in this movie. McPhail had no other part in the movie except to sing this piece, which he was well chosen for (He has a nice baritone voice). It just didn't belong in this film. It brought down the light and fun atmosphere and made us long for the end. The better points were Virginia Weidler, Ray McDonald, Larry Nunn and Leo Gorcey. And of course the kid who played the piano; he's amazing! Weidler grew into a lovely young lady and it's a shame she's not in more of the movie. It's nice to see McDonald in a leading role instead of a sidekick. Larry Nunn was very funny as the kid obsessed with suits, he had some great lines on that subject. I especially enjoyed the number with McDonald and Weidler towards the end. It was stuck in my head long after seeing the film. Definitely recommended for a light comedy, but you might want to turn it off right before the finale.

Whatever points I give this one is strictly based on the talented DOUGLAS McPHAIL and his rich baritone singing the climactic number, "America". MGM obviously was grooming him for big time stardom that never came. He was a Nelson Eddy kind of baritone, stolid looking, rather humorless, but usually just given background roles in any of the studio's big films.Here at least he takes the spotlight in the film's final number, a rousing tribute to Americana. But what precedes this is strictly hokum, a "let's put on the show" routine accompanied by some gangster stuff led by SHELDON LEONARD who gets off some typical '40s tough guy remarks. ("I'm gonna put him in opera if I gotta buy the joint," he says of McPhail.) Another amusing and typical '40s moment has Leonard landing in the same police patrol wagon with a few of the show biz kids, including LEO GORCEY. Another youngster takes one look at his suit and says, "If you get the hot seat, can I have that suit?"VIRGINIA WEIDLER is totally wasted in the leading femme role as the daughter of a musician, but the cast is perked up by RAGS RAGLAND, MARGARET DUMONT, DARLA HOOD and especially young RAY McDONALD, who was a hoofer who ranked easily with Donald O'Connor as one of filmdom's best dancers.Summing up: Unfortunately, never rises above its B-picture material, except for the climactic song celebrating America.