Professional Sweetheart

Considering that this was Ginger Rogers' first film at RKO you'd have expected something better. Merian Cooper had just taken charge of RKO and consequently this film does have the art deco look and feel of that studio's subsequent output during his tenure such as the Fred and Ginger musicals. It might look ok and it actually starts off quite well but after about half an hour you realise that this is rubbish!

We're used to silly stories in these types of films but this one is so ridiculous with ridiculously one dimensional unrealistic characters, it just becomes annoying. Ginger Rogers' character is almost as unbelievable as the absurd management team who are almost as unbelievable as the stupid hillbilly (bizzarely called an Anglo-Saxon, even though he doesn't seem to be a Germanic tribesman?) Such shallow characters make it difficult to develop any empathy for any of them.

So the story is stupid, the characters are badly written but for some reason it's still reasonably amusing and entertaining. Logically you shouldn't watch this nonsense but once you start you inexplicably get hooked.