Dad's Movies: "Everybody Does it"

 Classic movies meet classical music in this installment:  Everybody Does It (1949).

One sure sign of how much more visible classical music used to be in American culture is the way it was sometimes made the subject of farce in Hollywood mainstream movies. This was apparently a remake of a very similar 1939 film made by the same studio so the idea must have had appeal. 

The whole setup is pretty silly and is yet another example of the old, "those ladies are better off staying home" idea of marital happiness. It's pretty eye-rolling but the whole thing is played for laughs and the cast manages to sell it well enough. Paul Douglas is funny and seems in on the joke but Linda Darnell has to be the straight woman who wants to make Douglas' character into a singing star. As Neil Young sang, "You were born to rock, you'll never be an opera star."

Dad likely saw this when it came out and was undoubtedly amused by the digs and references to classical music.