Virginia Grey

Jeanette MacDonald, having just been named "Queen of the Movies" by 22 million filmgoers in a 1939 New York Daily News opinion survey, stars in this elegant and alluring, fun-filled musical. Costarring leading man Lew Ayres, it's a rich and fitting tribute to the Broadway stage. Mary and Jimmy are a show biz couple, working the small joints in the Big Apple, hoping for a shot at the spotlights. Coincidentally, they both get a break at the same time; Jimmy earns a chance to pursue his music abroad, while Mary is cast in the road company of a big producer's new show. By the time Mary returns to New York she's already a star, and Jimmy's jealousy over her supposed romance with the producer gets the better of him. This love story, set against a terrific musical score and packed with one hit song after another, makes Broadway Serenade a powerful, triumphant success.

Raw-boned, raspy-voiced, sixty-something Letitia "Tish" Carberry (Marjorie Main, who would find her greatest fame in the Ma Kettle film series) comes back to her hometown with a baby in her arms. "I'm a woman. It's a baby. It's mine!" she declares. Three splendid character actresses – Main, Zasu Pitts and Aline MacMahon – play three delightful spinsters in Tish, based on stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart. The old dears try their hands at matchmaking, get everything in a dreadful muddle, and end up caring for an orphaned baby they mistakenly believe is illegitimate. This warm comedy is laced with drama and punctuated with plenty of sight gags, including Main roller-skating in her Sunday best and the three stars tangling with a disgruntled bear on a camping trip.