Anything Goes

Cole Porter's 1934 stage classic is brought to the screen with Bing Crosby as Billy Crocker, a young man so taken with the lovely Hope Harcourt (Ida Lupino) that he stows away on an ocean liner bound for England when he believes she has been kidnaped. To avoid being recognized by his boss, who is also on board, Billy masquerades as a henchman for gangster Moonface Martin (Charlie Ruggles), wooing Hope while he is pursued by nightclub thrush Reno Sweeney (Ethel Merman, in a sensational reprise of her stage role). Hope, as it turns out, is a runaway heiress, and though she falls for Billy, she has second thoughts when she comes to believe that he really is a mob goon...