Ladies' Man (1947)

No relation to the 1961 Jerry Lewis comedy of the same name, the 1947 musical Ladies' Man stars Eddie Bracken as the title character. It all begins when rural rube Henry Haskell (Bracken) inherits an oil fortune in Oklahoma. Enjoying his newfound wealth, Henry goes on a sightseeing tour of New York City, where he is quickly bamboozled into playing "Prince Charming" on a radio giveaway show (this plot device is a takeoff of the "Miss Hush" contest on radio's Truth or Consequences). The architect of this chicanery is ad agency exec Gladys Hayden (Virginia Field), who convinces Henry that she'll lose her job if he doesn't go along with the gag. Somewhere along the line, the plot is put on the back burner in favor of a steady stream of specialty numbers, performed by the likes of Cass Daley and Spike Jones & His City Slickers, the latter aggregation performing their classic Cocktails for Two." Eddie Bracken himself does a nice singing job with a pair of Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi