Paramount Picture's loose 1936 adaptation of Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay, Russell Crouse and Cole Porter's blockbuster 1934 musical comedy masterpiece Anything Goes stars Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman (reenacting her Broadway role, Reno Sweeney), Charles Ruggles and Ida Lupino and features 4 of the 12 songs Porter penned for the original. Three of those songs – "I Get a Kick Out of You", "There'll Always Be a Lady Fair" and "You're the Top" – suffered significant lyric editing to get past the Production Code censors and the fourth, "Anything Goes", lost all but it's opening line. But that's all par for the course with 1930s adaptations of Broadway musical comedies, and we do have great leads...and the blessing of experiencing Ms. Merman singing 3 of the songs she made famous on Broadway. And the film does include the excellent Carmichael/Heyman song "Moonburn". So there you go!
New songs by Hoagy Carmichael, Edward Heyman, Friedrich Hollaender, Richard A. Whiting and Leo Robin fill out the soundtrack.
When Paramount sold the film's television rights, it retitled the film Tops Is The Limit because the 1956 film remake, also produced by Paramount, was currently running in theaters.
[1 hr 32 min]