I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby

"MELODEARS and MUSICAL MOBSTERS... in the fun frolic of the season!"

May 1 1940 Approved 1h 1m
Comedy, Music

In I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, Broderick Crawford plays a sentimental gangster who abducts songwriter Johnny Downs and forces him to write a love ballad. It is Crawford's hope that the song will reach out and touch his long-lost childhood sweetheart. I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby was based on James Edward Grant's short story Trouble in B Flat; echoes of the basic premise later resurfaced in the 1957 "A" picture The Girl Can't Help It.

Plot

When Public Enemy No. 3 Sonny McGann meets composer Bob Gunther, he gets the idea of having Bob write music to a poem he has written about his long-lost sweetheart Sadie McGlonsky. Somewhere between kidnapping and gentle persuasion, Sonny takes Bob and his girlfriend Linda Carroll to his penthouse hideout and orders Bob to write the music. After completion, Sonny and his mob use some strong-arm persuasion to get it on "The Hit Parade." Bob tries to trick Sonny saying he can't write any more music because of his unrequited love for music comedy star Magda Delys. Sonny's solution is to have his men bring Magda and a minister with a marriage license to the penthouse. Bob is forced to begin the ceremony but Public Enemy No. 2, Big Foot Louie, barges in and reveals that his own hobby is writing music. And Sonny recognizes Magda as his long-lost love Sadie McGlonsky. He and Big Foot decide to quit the rackets and surrender to the District Attorney so they can collaborate on writing hit songs "in the pen."

Written by

James Edward Grant, Arthur T. Horman, Paul Gerard Smith

Directed by

Albert S. Rogell

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

Universal Pictures

Languages

English

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
39
Average Rating
7 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA