| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Kate Smith | ... | Kate Smith | |
| Randolph Scott | ... | Hunt Blake | |
| Sally Blane | ... | Lily Smith | |
| Charley Grapewin | ... | Jed | |
| George Barbier | ... | Mr. Blair | |
| Wade Boteler | ... | Parker | |
| Julia Swayne Gordon | ... | Mrs. Smith | |
| Erville Alderson | ... | Horton | |
| William B. Davidson | ... | Mr. Parker | |
| Paul Kruger | ... | Mr. Lindle | |
|
|
Ted Collins | ... | Ted Collins |
| Frank Darien | ... | Henry Thompson | |
| Fern Emmett | ... | Ettie | |
| Jerry Tucker | ... | Bobby Smith | |
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Marguerite Campbell | ... | Bettina Smith |
The setting is a farm. Kate Smith and Sally Blane play sisters; assorted relatives live with the sisters, but everyone at home, and in the whole town, depends on Kate to hold everything together. The power company wants to build a dam which will require flooding many of the farms; Kate is holding out; if Kate sells, everyone else will sell; if Kate refuses, the rest of the town will refuse as well. Randolph Scott meets Kate's beautiful sister, Sally Blane, at a dance. Randolph Scott, as it turns out, is an agent for the power company. Kate thinks he's just using Sally; Sally believes that he truly likes her. Randolph comes to the farm and appears to woo Kate. Kate remains unconvinced about selling out, but falls for Randolph. Written by Alan Jacobs <ajacobs@nyc.rr.com>
For those of us who have listened, learned about, and appreciated hearing the wonderful popular songs of the early-1930s, this movie is well worth experiencing. Kate Smith was a good performer and sang wonderfully. Many people seem to stereotype her as a woman with a major weight problem who just sang patriotic or sentimental songs; but in her early career she was a singer of popular songs. There are some of her recordings from the late-20s and early-30s reissued on CDs.
Like most musicals (and probably most films in general) the storyline is sappy; but especially from our perspective today, hearing & seeing the performance of the music is what counts. Most of the Paramount films of this period unfortunately are not being made available in any commercial form today. The film was shown on some TV stations several years ago and I obtained a VHS copy of a copy of a copy.