Cinema: The New Pictures: Dec. 2, 1940

You’ll Find Out (R. K. O. Radio). Bandmaster Kay Kyser, who sells Lucky Strike cigarets on a weekly radio hour called Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge, wows his audience with a white cap & gown, a bouncing, frenzied jig he performs in front of the orchestra, an irresistible flow of puns, sly glances at his audience to let them know they are in on the horseplay. His slogan, “Yet’s dance, chillun, yet’s dance,” is the signal for his equally rambunctious musicians to don unbecoming hats and wigs, toot their instruments in a spirit of buffoonery. That this form of entertainment would reach the screen was as inevitable as bad weather.

It is actually the second of a series, for the first Kyser picture, That’s Right, You’re Wrong, appeared twelve months ago. Financed jointly by R. K. O., oval-shaped Director David Butler and Kyser, it was completed for a paltry $300,000, trapped $1,000,000 worth of customers. Kyser drew $100,000 net profit from the highly speculative enterprise with only the $5,000 weekly salary of his band to be deducted. Other studios, gasping at the result, quickly signed up further favorites of the jitterbug generation, for pictures that are now on their way. Paramount put Artie Shaw into Second Chorus, Orrin Tucker (and Bonnie Baker) into You’re the One, expects to start Las Vegas Nights with Tommy Dorsey by month’s end; Jimmy Roosevelt’s Globe Productions hired Horace Heidt for Pot O’ Gold. R. K. O., not to be outdone at its own game, has already completed Let’s Make Music starring Bob Crosby and his Bob Cats, plans another Kay Kyser for February.

In You’ll Find Out Director Butler limited Kyser’s musical antics to six less than lyric numbers by Jimmy McHugh and Johnny Mercer. The rest of the proceedings involve the attempt of three arch spooks (Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi) to do away with a young girl (Helen Parrish) about to come into her inheritance on her 21st birthday. Whether or not she will survive to attain her majority in the face of such villainy supplies a reason for allowing Kyser to grapple with grotesque props (see cut).