Best movies like Hats Off

A Broadway producer is in a quandary when he discovers that the opening of his newest big production coincides with that of a major charity event. He despairs that the show will close after opening night until an ingenious writer suggests that he simply give the production snob-appeal by making the tickets nearly impossible to get by fabricating a story that they were all purchased by a flamboyant Texas oil baron who is totally besotted by the show's star.

Satire on radio, built around the supposed feud between bandleader Ben Bernie and journalist Walter Winchell.

Paddy O'Riley and Ossie Merrill, Bellport high school football heroes, enroll in distant colleges; Paddy at a small school in the East, where he is barely a substitute, and Ossie at a powerhouse-football school, where he is an instant star and all-American candidate. They leave behind Cheers Reynolds, who is fond of Paddy, who works in her family's drugstore, but she loves Ossie almost as much as he loves himself. Paddy makes friends with team fullback Dutch Schultz, who accompanies him on vacation, and they arrive back in Bellport just as Ossie is also coming home on break. Florence Taylor is also in town on a film junket. Unknown to any of the others, Paddy and Florence had gone to high school together. Back at school and three years later, Paddy and Dutch learn that their football team could get invited to the coveted Rose Bowl to play against Ossie's team, if it could get enough publicity (pre-BCS days) that would attract a large crowd...

The Ritz Brothers pretend to be Kentucky hillbillies in order to get a booking on a radio show.

At the Texas Centennial in Dallas Autry confuses two girls by being himself and his own stunt double. When cowboy star Tom Ford disappears, Wilson gets his double Gene Autry to impersonate him. But Ford owes gangster Rico $10,000 and Rico arrives to collect. He fails to get the money but learns that Autry is an impersonator and now blackmails Wilson and his movie studio. Original version runs 71 minutes, edited version runs 59 minutes.

Promoter "Smoothie" King helps a pair of phonies con their way into a movie company. As Wanda heads toward stardom, she turns more and more from King toward the matinée idol. King must decide between his plans and her happiness.

Husband-and-wife vaudeville stars separate when success goes to his head.

Broadway producer Nickie North and press agent Scoop Trimble find an investor for their next show who insists that they cast his ex-girlfriend, Clarice Sheldon, in the lead role and rehearse out of town. The crew set up on a family farm, and all is well until the leading man falls for the farmer's daughter, Patience Bingham. When flighty starlet Sheldon finds out he has a new girlfriend, she takes off, leaving North and Trimble to find a new leading lady.

On a peaceful, pre-war winter in Czechoslovakia, the genial godfather, Jaroslav Haschek, of Vera Hascheck, presents the young girl with her first pair of ice skates. Soon, she astonished the warm-hearted people of her village with her skill, and she is acclaimed a marvel-on-ice.

A TV worker has fickle designs on an aspiring singer for whom she arranges an audition.

Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.

The son of a disgraced Olympic decathlete prepares to become a star in his own right. His quest is complicated by a beautiful girl and a bitter rival.

Rival advertising firms compete for a radio show's pickle manufacturing account.

The champion race car driver Tommy Morton is the eternal rival to less-ethical speed king Larry 'Skids' Brannigan. What no one knows is that Tommy and Skids are actually brothers, separated at birth. Driven by a filial devotion that he can't explain, Tommy tries to dissuade Skids from recklessness, only to be "repaid" when Skids tries to steal away Tommy's blond girl-friend Eileen Hart.

Lulu Monahan, the press agent for John Barrymore, is attempting to get a sponsor for a radio program. To that end, she and the agent for bandleader Kay Kyser, plant a story that the great Shakespearean actor, over his heartfelt objections, will teach Kyser how to play Shakespeare, which isn't the same as playing Paducah, which soon becomes evident.

A young woman at a girl's school in Switzerland makes up stories about and writes herself letters from an imaginary explorer-adventurer father; and is eventually put in a position where she has to produce him. Interesting things happen as she talks a visiting Englishman into helping her out.

His Arizona hometown of Torpedo invites Gene back to be the honorary sheriff of the Frontier Days Celebration.

George Cabot Jr., the son of a department store owner, enrolls Kristina Nielsen, the store's sports clerk, at a university to use her as an advertisement for their fashion department. She falls for Larry Taylor, a teacher, and gets expelled.

A belly dancer causes a scandal with her suggestive dancing at a Worlds Fair exhibition at the turn of the 20th century.

Unscrupulous agent Rush Blake makes singing waiter Buddy Clayton a big radio star while Peggy Cornell, who has lost her own radio show, helps Buddy.

Promoter Ann Porter decides to start her own Ice Show despite the efforts of ex-racketeer Duke Baldwin who owns a rival show. Jeff Stewart, a rich, suave young Broadwayite, falls in love with Ann and aids her in her fight against Baldwin.

After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.

A 14-year-old boy lies about his age and enlists in the United State Marine Corps without his family's consent or knowledge. He is sent into battle in the Pacific war-zone, decorated, and spotted in a newsreel by his family. The family asks the War Department to discharge him and send him home.

A pilot of a B 29 meets Louise Anderson, a singer in a New York nightclub. He falls in love with her, but he had to leave next day for action in the Pacific. He lets paint her picture on his bomber, the "Bamboo Blonde" and becomes a hero with his crew sinking a Japanese battleship and shooting down a Japanese fighter wing. Back in New York, he leaves his fiancée and engages him to Louise.

A Broadway director rescues a starlet from mobsters who blame her for a shooting.

An 11 year old radio star decides to throw in her scripts and go undercover to get a better feel for her roles, but when she is kidnapped, trouble soon follows in this comedy.

Bob Allen, a struggling songwriter poses as a millionaire cowboy to win Broadway star Babs Lee.

Reformed jewel-thief Sophie Lang, tired of being questioned by the New York City police every time a jewel disappears, decides to head for California only to get into more trouble.

Sailing Along is a 1938 British musical comedy film directed by Sonnie Hale and starring Jessie Matthews, Barry MacKay, Jack Whiting, Frank Pettingell, Noel Madison and Alastair Sim. A barge-owner's adopted daughter falls in love with his son, and gives up her chances of stardom to be with him

When a department store songstress becomes a radio star she keeps her identity secret, as the "Masked Countess", because he estranged husband is a crook.

A radio commentator avenges an old wrong by blowing the whistle on Hollywood scandals

Wonder Pictures has been striking out at the box office lately, causing the seedy PR man to involve main star Annabel in ever outrageous stunts for publicity.

Rival reporters (George Brent, Joan Blondell) investigate a Hollywood star (Adele Jergens) and the box she receives with a dead man inside.

Annabel Allison, star of Wonder Pictures, is irked at her poor publicity, especially when a rival gets engaged to a Marquis; so she makes studio head Webb re-hire disgraced publicity agent Morgan for her personal appearance tour. The trip proceeds with a flurry of Morgan's crazy, slapstick publicity stunts. Then Annabel has her chance to "bag" a real Viscount.

In pre-Second World War England, a leading film star and his wife attempt to recover a secret carburetor stolen by enemy agents. Based on a popular stage musical starring Hulbert and Courtneidge, a husband-and-wife team who had made a series of successful comedy films during the 1930s.

An embellished dramatization of the career and personal life of actor Rudolph Valentino, widely regarded as the screen's first male sex symbol.

On leave, a sailor falls in love with a young lady aspiring to become a Broadway dancer, but their relationship is jeopardized by an established Broadway star, who is also enamored by him.

A producer and his partner clash over two women in show business.

Don Vincente is determined to make a success of himself and his band. He gets his break by performing at the Garden of the Moon, which is broadcast over the radio. The problem is that John Quinn is the club's ruthless, scheming manager who will do anything to keep Vincente under his thumb. John's assistant, Toni Blake, falls for Vincente, complicating the escalating war.

The "Caliban-Ariel" romance of fiftysomething John Barrymore and teenager Elaine Barrie is spoofed in this delightful 20th Century Fox musical. Adolphe Menjou plays the Barrymore counterpart, a loose-living movie star with a penchant for wine, women, and more wine. Alice Faye plays a nightclub singer hungry for publicity. Her agent (Gregory Ratoff) arranges a "romance" between Faye and Menjou. Eventually Faye winds up with Michael Whalen, allowing Menjou to continue his blissful, bibulous bachelorhood. Sing, Baby, Sing represented the feature-film debut of the Ritz Brothers, who are in top form in their specialty numbers--and who are awarded a final curtain call after the "The End" title, just so the audience won't forget them (The same device was used to introduce British actor George Sanders in Fox's Lancer Spy [37]).

Agent Pete Garland is fired by society singer Monica Barrett after he got her a new radio contract, because she thinks her lawyer friend Teddy Leeds fits in better with her social status. To get even, Pete wants to make an unknown singer into a star. He finds Ruth Allison, drives her hard through rehearsals and makes her a star. But she is worried about her past, something she hasn't told Pete: She's an ex-convict and jumped bail in order to keep her partners in crime out of it. Further she's in love with Pete, but feels that he's still carrying a torch for Monica. When Monica's popularity is decreasing, Pete is able to get Ruth a stint on the program, the result is Monica is fired and Ruth get her job, but Monica takes revenge by revealing Ruth's past. Ruth considers it is best for her to disappear before being arrested, but she has become a star in public opinion. Will she get Pete or will she go to prison again?

A Paris cabaret singer dreams of becoming a Metropolitan Opera singer. A press agent arranges her Manhattan debut by way of Africa.

Unable to get work in her home country, Laurine Lynne (Beverly Roberts) travels to Vienna where her press agent, Joe Craig (Allyn Joslyn), convinces her to marry royalty. The lucky fellow is Prince Rupert (Patric Knowles), an impoverished nobleman now working as a waiter. Do the two of them fall in love despite this marriage of convenience?

A press agent for a Broadway actress whose career is going downhill, attempts to get her some publicity by having her adopt two orphans, without her knowledge.

A failed actor finds success as a radio singer.

In this musical, a sharp witted press agent teams up with an unemployed chorine and dubs her "Miss Manhattan" to promote a cheap line of clothing. To escort her about town, the agent invents a "Mr. Manhattan." He then has them fake a marriage. When he realizes that he is in love with his creation, the agent promptly fires "Mr. M" and takes her to the altar personally. Songs include: "Ma, He's Making Eyes At Me," "Unfair To Love," and "A Lemon In The Garden Of Love."

In this musical western, a cowboy band is offered the chance to appear in a Hollywood movie and begins the journey to the West Coast. Unfortunately, the band ends up stranded in Texas and must take a job running a ranch. Musical mayhem ensues: Songs include: "Let's Love Again," "Where the Prairie Meets the Sky," "Don't You Ever Be a Cowboy," "Texas Polka," "No Letter Today," "I Got Mellow in the Yellow of the Moon," "Sip Nip Song," "Salt-Water Cowboy," "The Blues," "Little Brown Jug" and "And Then."

Airline hostess Ann Parker is fired for being undignified when she sang to calm the passengers during a storm. Mike Connors, publicity man for Frankie Carle's orchestra, invites her to try out as the band's vocalist since the regular singer, Mary Lou, had just quit the band on the eve of an engagement at a swanky New York night club. Encouraged by her boyfriend, Steve Roberts, Ann lands the job and assumes the name of "Mary Lou", a trademark almost for Frankie Carle singers. But the departed Mary Lou shows up and threatens to sue if she is not rehired. Ann returns to her former job. Meanwhile, Steve locates the woman who was the original Mary Lou with the band, and urges Mike to keep the current Mary Lou off the bandstand until he can return with Ann.

All-American singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely went below the border in this musical Western from the assembly line at Monogram, performing such ditties as Adios Mariquita Linda, Rose of the Rancho, the inevitable La Cucaracha, and his own title tune. As always, Jimmy Wakely plays himself, this time heading for Don Roberto Lopez's (Julian Rivero) ranch to track down a missing gold shipment.

A boxer is killed in the ring, and the only clue is a tune that a man was whistling.