Love on Toast (1937)

The "Sanford" soup company is having a crisis. It sells more in Glendale than it does in New York City and this is causing consternation amongst the board - who want to turn the factory into an ice rink! The company is now owned by the son of the industrious father - "Sandy" (Grant Richards) and he has to come up with a solution. Luckily, he has his press agent "Linda" (Stella Adler) who comes up with the dream solution. A beauty competition that will require people to submit loads of soup labels to be in with a chance of being "Miss Brooklyn" or "Mr. Manhattan". There are no shortages of entries, driving up their sales but also creating an headache for the board members who ultimately select the hunky, but completely disinterested "Bill" (John Payne) and the feisty "Polly" (Kathryn Kane). The idea is that the two will fall head over heels and marry. Somehow we just know that the execution of that plan is never going to turn out so ideally, as the course of true love never runs smoothly. This film starts off strongly, with Adler given pretty much free reign to establish a funny, lively and savvy character. Sadly, though, there is little chemistry between her and the handsome but very much by-the-numbers Payne, and as the plot meanders on the pace runs out and the characterisations revert more and more to type. The wittiness of the script peters out too, and by halfway through we are starting on a borderline farce with an all too predictable ending. It features a couple of unremarkable musical numbers from Sam Coslow and Burton Lane that are actually sung by their actors, but they seem to do little more than further reduce the story to melodrama. It's worth a watch, though, for the first half hour of Adler owning the screen.