Such a frustrating disappointment

Beautiful, moving film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This wonderful cast interacts with absolute precision, whether walking around a room or interrupting each others' wisecracks. The script and direction meld into an enjoyable film. What's best is that not one character ever removes his tongue from his cheek. They know it's not serious and so do we. It's just pure fun.Some reviewers say the film is heavily gay; I beg to differ. While Pangborn gives a few swishes, it's not entirely clear which side of the street he walks on until near the end. There Pitts see him in his underwear, feigns surprise and then walks into his room and closes the door. The rest is left to our imagination, but gay isn't part of it.This is a film to see again and again to appreciate great plotting and directing.

"Professional Sweetheart" proved to be an important picture for Ginger Rogers. She had just left Warners and went over to RKO for what she thought was yet another unpretentious programmer - and it was, sort of, but the script poked satirical fun at radio sponsors and commercialized purity. Frank Nugent, of the New York Times, who had never shown much interest in Ginger, thought that she had rarely been so entertaining. RKO thought she had a future and placed her under contract and even though she was soon over at Poverty Row filming "A Shriek in the Night", they remembered her when Dorothy Jordan dropped out of "Flying Down to Rio", giving her her first screen teaming with Fred Astaire.Miss Glory Eden (Rogers) is the Purity Girl of the air - the girl beloved by "dwellers in Manhattan penthouses and country folk on Main Street". She is supposed to represent everything sweet and good but she is getting pretty fed up with her lifestyle - the food she is forced to eat is healthy and bland - no champagne, caviar or chocolate for her and she longs to kick up her heels in a real New York nightclub with sexy underwear and a slinky dress. She feels she had more freedom back in the orphan's home. More than anything else Glory wants a man - a playboy!!! "No second hand goods for you"!!! Gregory Ratoff declares - "you must have a virgin"!!! Yes he really does say that!! In the same scene Glory bemoans the fact that she wants to be like her girlfriend - the one who came to town, found a man, got a fur coat and even got into trouble!!! Glory says enviously "Yes, she even got into trouble - but I'm not even getting there"!!! Pretty racy dialogue - even for a pre-code!!They (all the wonderful stable of character actors - Zasu Pitts, Frank McHugh, Franklin Pangborn) organise a "date" for her with one of her many fans, a taciturn country boy, Jim Davey (Norman Foster) who is suspicious of city slickers!!! There is so much publicity about her country sweetheart that the press demand a wedding!! - which takes place broadcast coast to coast!! It is orchestrated to the last degree - even to how much applause there is to be and there is even a reference to television when the wedding gifts are described. Lucien Littlefield describes them as high class and elegant but in reality they are cheap and tasteless.When a rival sponsor appears on the scene Jim realises that Glory's dreams of a house in the country, a little white picket fence etc was all talk and once she knows that the new contract carries no clauses - she can smoke, drink, go to nightclubs and eat chocolate she is eager to sign but Jim has a trick or two up his sleeve. He takes her to the country and she starts to thrive - all the skills she learned as an orphan - cooking, cleaning etc she just loves!! But all her domesticity goes out the window when she learns her maid has taken over her singing duties on the radio and the public love her!!!This is a really fun movie, all the team of wacky funsters are in it and because there are quite a few there is no chance that their comedy gets too much or too labored. Apart from the few I have already mentioned there is also Allen Jenkins and Sterling Holloway.

I saw this with another RKO Ginger Rogers film from the same year.Even though these are targeted as light entertainment, I am amazed at how fresh they feel and how experimental the structure is.That lightness is often attributed to the lack of the Hayes Code, which lowered its dark curtain the following year. Its clear in retrospect that this was a bad thing, that it wounded an entire society, and would have destroyed it altogether had we not encountered a similar more obvious evil. And went to war.But how does one know what is right around the corner? How does one celebrate the freedoms that are about to be taken away? Its a haunting thing in the background of this, as part of the joke is that this perfect man is "the purest of Anglo-Saxons." Another part of the joke is that sweetness, goodness and happiness is contrasted with black jive, sex and Harlem, all of which are "fun."The structure of the thing is pretty sophisticated. Many films from these four years 1930- 33 were similarly adventuresome in their structure. Its a show about sex and domestic values within which is a show (a radio show) about sex and domestic values. (The domestic hook is literally a dishrag.) Around this show are a collection of nattering men trying to engineer romance and predictably failing. If you study the narrative structure of date movies, you'll be familiar with tricks about how to reflect the viewer in the story. Its rather novel and somewhat perfect here.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Ginger Rodgers shines in a role that might have been written for Jean Harlow. She cracks wise, hurls insults, and dances around in her underwear. Zazu Pitts is priceless as the gushing and gullible small town reporter. Franklin Pangborn is more blatantly gay here than we normally get to see him. This movie touches on many aspects of celebrity that remain true to this day. The manipulation of a public image and the team of professionals that that requires. The all important "product", the selling of which is the reason for everything. This movie is also amazingly tolerant and socially progressive for it's time. The attractive black housekeeper's character is more of a friend to Ginger, who's footloose lifestyle she envies. Pangborn's character as one of her handlers is made obviously gay without degradation or judgement. Don't expect "Dinner at Eight", but "Professional Sweetheart" is sparkling and breezy pre-code fun!