Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)

US 101m, B&W
Director: Lloyd Bacon; Cast: Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Victor Moore, Lee Dixon, Osgood Perkins, Charles D. Brown, Rosalind Marquis

Unlike previous incarnations of the Gold Diggers series, the 1937 film is focused more on the story, and less on the musical numbers, which are now better integrated into the plot. Though the “big show” eventually is put on in this film, much of the singing and dancing is more personal,  and in the case, not all that memorable.  In their place, however, is a pretty funny, albeit simplistic comedy about J.J. Hobart – an aging and sickly producer who is talked into buying a million dollar life insurance policy by his unscrupulous business associates who hope to cash in on his early demise (Klaus Ming April 2013).