El ruiseñor pelea

A programmer from that golden year of 1939 may not be a classic but does spotlight two plucky kids who went on to become big stars, one much more acclaimed than the other.

Made at a time when contract players, sometimes even the big stars, averaged at least four pictures a year this was one of those four for Jane although for John there would only be three this year he made up for it in '40 with six. Obviously not all could be winners but this one is a chipper little piece of hokum almost totally reliant on the charms of its two leads with Walter Catlett full of bluster as the shady promoter who discovers Kid Nightingale.

Jane's in the dizzy blonde period the studio could never make work since her native intelligence always shone through. She's flip and charming. Payne handsome and fit had a big advantage over many of the other young actors, Wayne Morris, Jeffrey Lynn, Dick Foran etc., he was competing against he sang very well and the studio was wise to find ways, sometime ridiculous, to utilize that gift.

This is one of those time crafting perhaps the only singing boxer movie in existence for him. Isn't one enough though?

A pleasant and speedy diversion, just under an hour, that's as good an example as any of the B pictures the studio churned out to support their big ticket films.