Alex da Silva Rossi (Dick Powell) sells a life insurance policy worth $1 million dollars to JJ Hobart (Victor Moore). He then sticks beside him to ensure that he doesn't kick the bucket. If he does, Rossi loses his income and he needs it to settle down with Norma (Joan Blondell) who has scammed a job as a receptionist for the insurance company. At the same time, a couple of JJ's managers who have spent all of his finances need the insurance policy money to stage the next show and scheme to bump him off with the help of Norma's friend, Gen (Glenda Farrell). Things work out for a happy ending and there are musical numbers thrown into the proceedings.Unfortunately, none of them are particularly good. We are subjected to that irritating form of spoken-word singing a couple of times. Joan Blondell is the offender. However, she is funny at the beginning of the film when going for a job as a receptionist. Glenda Farrell steals every scene that she's in and changes from a wise-cracker to a cold-hearted cow to the gold-digger with a heart of gold. Dick Powell is good in the lead role and has some funny scenes, eg, he is a salesman that hates sales. Good for him. The cast are enjoyable to watch......except Victor Moore. He is an unfunny, irritating man with a flat head who looks mentally retarded and has the most annoying, whiny, slurry speech pattern. I rather hoped that the baddies would get their way with him.The music numbers were a bit of a let-down for me coz I don't like war themes with soldiers and marching and all that crap but if you like marching and flag-waving, then you'll probably enjoy a couple of the set numbers including the finale. Busby Berkeley has done much better than this. Overall, the main cast make the film watchable (NOT Victor Moore) and it's OK. Nothing more.

mrdonleone what a great musical this was! in fact, it contained of three individual parts.the first part was the introduction, where we got to know the story and the characters. this was quite boring, I tried to concentrate on the visuals rather than on the story.the second part, however, was intriguing. it showed us love can appear on every age and the intrigue was interesting too.the third part was beautiful and certainly one of the best endings from a Busby Berkeley musical. everything ended as it should be. I left the room with a good feeling. it's a shame pictures as these aren't made anymore today. long live Gold Diggers of 1937, without a doubt the best of the Gold Diggers series!

bkoganbing The next to last of the Gold Digger films finds Dick Powell as a rather unenthusiastic insurance salesman who'd rather be in show business, roped into selling an insurance policy to hypochondriac Broadway producer Victor Moore. Moore's got bigger problems than imaginary illnesses. He's got a couple of crooked partners in Charles D. Brown and Osgood Perkins. They've taken money from Moore and put in some stock that went belly up. Now to get the money back they have a scheme to insure Moore and then maybe push him along into eternity. In fact they almost trip him into it during the film.Joan Blondell is a former chorus girl now turned stenographer at the insurance company office and she gets her friends together with Powell and Lee Dixon from the company and they help Moore out.Gold Diggers of 1937 doesn't have quite the madcap lunacy of the 1935 edition, but still there's a lot of entertainment there. Busby Berkeley gets only two numbers here to demonstrate is creativity, Let's Put Our Heads Together and the finale All's Fair in Love and War. Powell solos with With Plenty of Money and You and he duets with current wife Blondell in Speaking of the Weather.Lee Dixon was a very talented dancer who graced a few musical films and then went east to Broadway and made his biggest splash as Will Parker in the original production of Oklahoma. Dixon died tragically young in 1953. I think he should have gotten some recognition from the Academy for having the nerve to go into this film playing a character named Boop Oglethorpe. There was only one more round for the Gold Diggers as in their next film they went to Paris and it was ended after that. This version is entertaining enough, even if not up to 1933 or 1935.

marc-112 The snappy dialogue and pace of Berkeley's previous films are not to be found here--GD of '37 feels more like a Republic musical than a Warners one. The bankroll went to the one big Berkeley number at the end--"All Is Fair In Love and War." It's a simple piece, lines of chorus girls dressed in white against a shiny black floor, but it is simply astonishing (the song is pretty catchy too). There is also a nice little number with Powell and Blondell called "Speaking of The Weather"--an interesting attempt to seamlessly integrate a musical number into the plot. Among the mistakes (besides the script) is the short-shrift given to the best, most popular song in the film--"With Plenty of Money and You."