Panama Hattie-1942

Here's an example of a busy ad that works. Whoever designed this knew what they were selling: Sex, in the central figure of Ann Sothern, laughs in the close-up on Red Skelton's face (and the line on his hat referencing his radio catch phrase), and the fact that Middle America could now see a hit Broadway musical they had only read about during its Broadway run. Of course, Middle America didn't yet realize that these things sometimes had little in common with the originals by the time they hit the screen.

The blue highlights the right areas without being distracting and there's just enough smaller images to intrigue and not make the rest harder to see.

The music is by Cole Porter "and others," the latter not necessarily being a good sign. That said, one of the songs listed is "Just One of Those Things" which, now, is considered a major classic! I don't know this for certain but something tells me "The Son-Of-A-Gun Who Picks On Uncle Sam" was written by "others."

Arthur Freed musicals from MGM are nearly all choice and Freed's name would have most likely  been a selling point already in the wake of WIZARD OF OZ, STRIKE UP THE BAND and BABES ON BROADWAY. The cast is good with my fellow Kentuckian Rags Ragland who had already appeared both in several of Red's pictures as well as several of Ann's MAISIE series. Deadpan comic singer Virginia O'Brien was a scream and was later to be married to Kirk SUPERMAN Alyn. Already veterans, Alan Mowbray and Ben Blue round out the cast with Marsha Hunt, unknown to me but still alive at age 96 as of this writing. Ms. Hunt worked steadily from the mid-1930s until 1988 with a couple of additional credits as recent as 2008!

Verdict: Would I have seen this movie just based on this ad? Yes!