Get Hep to Love (1942) watch online HD

Put such as Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, and Gloria Jean into a movie, and one would think that it'd be fast paced and full of songs, dance routines, and comedy, with a story thrown in as an afterthought. In most cases, one would be right. It's thus a pleasant surprise that "Get Hep to Love" doesn't fit that mold. The movie actually has a plot, a well-constructed (if a bit far-fetched) story (courtesy of master writer Jay Dratler), and good directing and acting.

The plot is straightforward: an orphaned 14 year old child prodigy singer is oppressed and driven by her aunt in the name of money. She rebels, runs away from home, and ends up tricking a rural couple into adopting her. The usual complications result from her adventures, but of course everything ends up fine in the end.

The acting is first-rate, as was usually the case with Universal. Gloria Jean does a fine job of playing the orphan. The supporting cast: stock Universal actors Jane Frazee, Robert Paige, Nana Bryant, Edith Barrett, Irving Bacon, Milliard Mitchell, etc., all perform their roles well and believably.

The movie does have its 'hep' moments with a lot of dialog and jokes that were popular with the teens of that era. Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan are their usual zany selves, and they perform one of their hectic dance routines. Popular teen soprano Gloria Jean sings a few songs (including the flashy aria "Siempre Libre" from the opera "La Traviata").

This musical isn't shown often on TV anymore (very few of the "B" musicals are nowadays). However, you can buy a VHS copy of the movie directly from Gloria Jean herself on her website. IMDb rules don't allow the posting of an URL, but you can probably find the website with your favorite search engine, using her full name ("Gloria Jean Schoonover") as keywords.

All in all, this is a movie worth seeing if you get the chance.

Calling all Gloria Jean fans, Get Hep to Love lets her explore her teen years as well as wow audiences with her operatic singing! She stars as a famous child singer, whose manager and guardian reneges on her promise to give her a rest from concerts. Fed up and anxious for a vacation, Gloria runs away! She's only a kid, though, and she quickly gets caught and sent to an orphanage until she can be identified-which she doesn't want. So, she steals the name and address of Jane Frazee and Robert Paige, parents who have applied for adoption, and shows up on their doorstep.

Jane and Robert take Gloria into their home and hearts, as does next-door neighbor, teenager Donald O'Connor! This movie isn't going to be up for any awards, but it's a typical teen-flick of the 1940s, if you like that genre. If you liked all the Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies, you'll probably like the Gloria-and-Donald duo. Keep in mind the title, though: there's lots of "hep" slang that's supposed to be funny but to modern audiences might come across as strange.

Second rate universal musical is as far from Mickey and Judy as you can get. Gloria Jean's films don't hold up as well as the MGM team because she's not as lively as fellow Universal soprano Deanna Durbin who had personality in spades, while Gloria Jean seemed to be holding back and even when she didn't proved to be very bland.

Jean is a "child" radio star oppressed by aunt Nana Bryant who wants to cash in on her popularity which she fears would wane if her public thought she was a teenager. Jean runs away, gets herself quickly adopted and enrolls herself in a local public school where she befriends perky Peggy Ryan, gets a crush on Donald O'Connor and makes an instant enemy in nasty Cora Sue Collins. Music teacher Edith Barrett tries to get Jean to sing in a music contest (which Collins seems to always win) and this leads to the threat of her identity being exposed.

A prehistoric combination of "Grease" and "Hairspray", this tries to be peppy but ends up popping out very quickly. The songs are substandard, and the big soda shop dance number doesn't even feature O'Connor. Peggy Ryan, usually able to sell a number, can't even give it away. Jane Frazee and Robert Paige as the adopted parents, have very little to do.

Lots of hep cat lingo in parts of this teenage musical comedy drama, starring Gloria Jean(as Doris) and Don O'Connor(as Jimmy). Much of the lingo, no doubt, was improvised, not to be found even in a hipster's dictionary.This includes one of the most used idioms: bundle bunny. My guess is it's derived from the mostly rural pre-central heating American courting tradition of a young woman and her suitor laying fully clothed on her bed under a cover of some sort, while they got better acquainted, and sometimes much farther than that.Anyway, I think it's a cute term for a girlfriend.

Despite the presence of Don O'Connor and several other actors who sometimes were featured singers in films, this is almost exclusively a Gloria Jean singing experience: almost. Her scatter-brained wild-child friend Betty(Peggy Ryan) does get one novelty song as she cavorts around a teen hangout in Betty Hutton-style, leading up to her only wild dancing scene in the film. The 'Jivin' Jacks and Jills' also add to this scene.Unlike some of the other films in the Don + Peggy +Gloria series, Don and Peggy jive dance only a short while, with minimal athletic features, and Don doesn't get to sing at all. Also, Gloria's arch rival for Don's affections: Elaine(Cora Sue Collins), who seems to be the snooty queen bee at this high school, gets one song in the annual school singing contest, to be bested by Gloria's rendition of Semper Libre". Gloria's prior "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" is done only half-heartedly, as she is trying to look out the window for Don, where she wants to be. Her only lively song is Ernesto Lecuona's classic "Siboney", which she sings for Don while they are parked out in a woods, to show that she can sing at least as well as his current crush: Elaine(Strange that she has an unseen orchestra accompaniment out in this woods!)

Aside from these occasional private or stage musical scenes, this is mostly a drama and comedy. Of course, we must have conflict. The 'bad' characters include Gloria's slave-driving wealthy aunt(Gloria is an orphan), who makes her practice her singing to the exclusion of everything else. Then, there is the head of the orphanage where she lands for a while after running away from her aunt, as well as a policeman or two who want to arrest her or send her to an orphanage. I've mentioned Elaine, her rival for Don's attentions. Don also has a wealthy rival for Elaine's attention, thus Elaine goes back and forth between Don and his rival. It's unclear why wild-child Peggy and Gloria, with her reserved academic demeanor, should form an alliance against Elaine. It appears that Peggy and Elaine don't like each other, and Peggy is using Gloria's pursuit of Don to ruffle Elaine. Another 'bad' character is the school principal, who wants to put down Gloria, with her assumed ignorance of academic matters, when she applies to enter the school as a junior. Of course, she astounds him with her detailed knowledge and quick mind. His algebra exam on the blackboard ends in a comical scene.

Gloria's temporary adopting parents, Stephen and Anne Winter, are played by handsome personable Robert Paige and beautiful blond Jane Frazee, whom Gloria senses are the perfect parents for the remainder of her teen years. These two played prominent roles in several other of the Don + Peggy + Gloria Jean(sometimes missing one) film series, occasionally being allowed to sing. Problem is Gloria discovered them by stealth, as they were expecting in infant when they applied for adoption, and they don't know that Gloria ran away from the orphanage, as well as her aunt. Conversely, Gloria doesn't know that shortly before her arrival, Anne was about to walk out on her golf-obsessed unambitious husband. After Gloria's arrival, Stephen decides he will look for a better job, to better qualify as Gloria's permanent adopting father. A comical scene follows when Stephen is given the challenge of selling a big life insurance policy to a notoriously wealthy tightwad. Yes, he more than succeeds, using a barrel of comical verbal trickery. Thus, Gloria is functioning as an unintentional 'little miss fix it'.

The last part of this film gets hectic, as Gloria's aunt traced her to this small town after making the front page with her large reward for Gloria's return. Auntie walks in just as Gloria is finishing her winning recital. She pulls a bewildered Don with her to make a getaway in his car. After a wild chase, they are cornered, and are taken to the police station, with all the other principals arguing about her future disposition. When the judge arrives, it's clear he's all against auntie and for Gloria's choice. Must have been paid off by the Winters.

This is at least the second film in which Gloria played an orphan. Two years earlier, she costarred with Bing Crosby, who served as her temporary guardian and proxy boyfriend, in the wonderful "If I Had My Way". If you want to experience Gloria still with some of her little girl looks and persona, I highly recommend this film. She and Bing made an enchanting and songful team, despite their quite different singing styles.

Robert Paige's birth name was John Page. He eventually had it altered to avoid confusion with another up and coming actor:John Payne, whom he somewhat resembled physically, along with Tyrone Power.

This film is currently available at You Tube , in 7 segments.

Because this was one of Donald O'Connor's films he made at Universal with Peggy Ryan and Gloria Jean, I expected to see him dancing up a storm. Unfortunately, he only dances at the end with Gloria and it's not really much. Ms. Ryan does her stuff at a malt shop and sings a swingin' tune as well so there's that! Ms. Jean does her operatic songs to mostly fine effect though I'm not really a fan of her music. Her rival (Cora Sue Collins) sings something I recognize as the song -"Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms"- that Bugs Bunny plays in his cartoons-instigated to do so by foes Yosemite Sam or Daffy Duck-in which he misses the note that's supposed to blow him up! Oh, and another lady I recognize is Jane Frazee who I previously saw singing in Buck Privates and Hellzapoppin'. She does not do that here. Anyway, Get Hep to Love was pretty entertaining so, yeah, that's a recommendation. P.S. Though I've been watching the Blondie movie series of late, I didn't recognize the mailman in those entries as a character named Mr. Hardwicke in this movie-Irving Bacon.