Meet the People
| Meet the People | |
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| Directed by | Charles Reisner |
| Produced by |
Arthur Freed E.Y. Harburg |
| Written by |
Ben Barzman Sol Barzman |
| Starring |
Lucille Ball Dick Powell |
| Music by | Lennie Hayton |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
| Edited by | Alex Troffey |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,302,000 |
| Box office | $960,000 |
Meet the People (1944) is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical comedy film made during World War II, and starring Lucille Ball and Dick Powell and featuring Virginia O'Brien, Bert Lahr, Rags Ragland and June Allyson. The film takes its title from a successful Los Angeles stage revue, which ran on Broadway from December 25, 1940 to May 10, 1941. Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra, Spike Jones and his City Slickers, and Virginia O'Brien were also in the original stage cast. O'Brien sings the hit song "Say We're Sweethearts Again".
The phrase "Heavens to Murgatroyd!", later popularized by cartoon character Snagglepuss, was originally said by Bert Lahr in this movie.
Lucille Ball's singing voice was dubbed by Gloria Grafton.
Welder William "Swanee" Swanson works at a shipyard in Morganville, Delaware. One day he sees the brightly shining Broadway star Julie Hampton speak in front of a crowd of workers at the yard, and he instantly falls in love with her.
Luckily enough, Julie has promised to go on a date with the man who sells the most war bonds within a certain time limit. Swanee lies to Julie and tells her that he has $7,500 in pledges. He also tells the workers that Julie will kiss every worker who makes additional pledges to him. The crowd goes wild with excitement, and Swanee easily wins the prize.
Swanee drives Julie up to the romantic Inspiration Point in his old car, trying to impress her. He also tells her about the musical he has written together with his cousin John, a U.S.M.C. It is about working men, and he even performs the theme love song for her. He calls the musical "Meet the People". She is impressed enough to show the musical screenplay to a Broadway producer, Monte Rowland, and the producer agrees to stage the play on the condition that he can use old costumes from previous shows.
When the show is rehearsed, Swanee discovers that all the roles have glittery showbiz costumes, and don't look the least like working men. He is disappointed, and demands the costumes to be altered. Monte refuses and cancels the show, hoping that Swanee will surrender and give in.
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