Garden of the Moon

Busby Berkeley, the musical staging genius behind 42nd Street and the Gold Diggers series, bid farewell to his original Warner Bros. contract in swingin' style with tunes by Harry Warren, Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer. Now that's Golden Age name-dropping. The story is a breezy bit of show-biz romance set at the title nightclub, a chi-chi spot where the owner (Pat O'Brien) and the bandleader (screen-debuting John Payne) spar over everything from chewing gum to the club's pretty flack (Margaret Lindsay). Of course, the real story is the music and Garden of the Moon barely catches its breath between songs, including the cheery "Love Is Where You Find It" and the playful, scat-singin' wit of "The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish."

The Garden of the Moon is a fancy New York nightclub owned by Pat O'Brien. Margaret Lindsay (replacing a recalcitrant Bette Davis) is the girl who comes between O'Brien and his bandleader, John Payne. The duplicitous O'Brien spends most of his screen time figuring out various underhanded means to keep Payne from breaking his contract--and to keep Ms. Lindsay for himself. Though directed by Busby Berkeley, GARDEN OF THE MOON is surprisingly shy of dance numbers. Its musical highlight is that LOONEY TUNES standard "The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish," with vocal solos by John Payne, Johnnie "Scat" Davis, and Jerry Colonna.