...For example, if you've always wanted to see a young John Wayne in a modern dress role being handed some flowers from Franklin Pangborn and the Duke not then punch him in the nose, this is your film! "Cheer Up and Smile" has the always whiney Arthur Lake whine some more as underclassman Eddie Fripp being hazed by a fraternity to which he is trying to gain admittance. Two of the stunts he must perform get him in bad trouble. Kicking a professor gets him kicked out of college, and kissing a random girl on the street gets him in trouble with his girl Margie, played by Dixie Lee.
So a despondent Eddie leaves college even though the fraternity wants to explain things to the dean and his girl, and he gets a job as a musician in a nightclub. In this part of the film you get to see Whispering Jack Smith sing in a contraption that appears to be a china closet. Olga Baclanova as the wife of the hot tempered jealous owner of the night club plays a Russian who only speaks a little French and thus does not have to talk at all (Her English was awful, and when she was originally recruited as a silent star by Paramount, that didn't matter). However, for some reason she just can't keep her hands off Eddie, with the night club owner always walking in on what looks like a mutually compromising situation.
Then some gangsters decide to rob the nightclub, knock out Whispering Jack Smith who is supposed to sing on the radio from the nightclub, and Eddie has to sing in his place, with the robbers' guns at his head. Why they just didn't scram with the loot is anybody's guess. Well Eddie's nervous stammering singing style is a huge hit, although he gave a fake name when he went on the air - Eric Dare - because he couldn't remember his own name due to his extreme fright.
Does this sudden fame and fortune lead to Eddie squaring things with his girl? If so how? Watch and find out.
So a despondent Eddie leaves college even though the fraternity wants to explain things to the dean and his girl, and he gets a job as a musician in a nightclub. In this part of the film you get to see Whispering Jack Smith sing in a contraption that appears to be a china closet. Olga Baclanova as the wife of the hot tempered jealous owner of the night club plays a Russian who only speaks a little French and thus does not have to talk at all (Her English was awful, and when she was originally recruited as a silent star by Paramount, that didn't matter). However, for some reason she just can't keep her hands off Eddie, with the night club owner always walking in on what looks like a mutually compromising situation.
Then some gangsters decide to rob the nightclub, knock out Whispering Jack Smith who is supposed to sing on the radio from the nightclub, and Eddie has to sing in his place, with the robbers' guns at his head. Why they just didn't scram with the loot is anybody's guess. Well Eddie's nervous stammering singing style is a huge hit, although he gave a fake name when he went on the air - Eric Dare - because he couldn't remember his own name due to his extreme fright.
Does this sudden fame and fortune lead to Eddie squaring things with his girl? If so how? Watch and find out.