Naughty but Nice (1939 film)

Plot

Professor Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell), who lectures his students against swing music and jitterbugging, goes to New York City to get his symphony published, but accidentally writes a hit swing song ("Hooray for Spinach, Hooray for Milk") with the connivance of aspiring lyricist Linda McKay (Gale Page), which brings him into disrepute with the Dean of his college (Halliwell Hobbes). After the teetotaling professor accidentally gets drunk, Hardwick promises to stay in New York City for the summer and write songs with McKay, and they have three more hits.

Unfortunately, singer Zelda Manion (Ann Sheridan) exploits his talents to her own advantage by getting Hardwick drunk again, and tricking him into signing a contract with her publisher. His new lyricist, Joe Dirk (Allen Jenkins), gets Hardwick in trouble by copying a classical piece of music and signing Hardwick's name to it. At Hardwick's trial, his aunts (Helen Broderick, ZaSu Pitts, Vera Lewis and Elizabeth Dunne) convince the judge (Granville Bates), a songwriter himself, that the earlier melody was copied from an even earlier piece now in the public domain, and the judge throws the case out.

Production

Naughty but Nice had the working titles of "Professor Steps Out" and "Always Leave Them Laughing".

After seven years and 37 films, singer Dick Powell was tired of being typecast at Warner Bros., so he refused to resign when his contract was up: Naughty but Nice was his last film for the studio, which responded by not releasing it. A year later they changed their minds when Ann Sheridan started to receive a great deal of publicity, and was labelled "The Ooomph Girl". To cash in on it, they belatedly released Naughty but Nice, pushing Sheridan's billing over Powell's.