Mister Big is a 1943 musical directed by Charles Lamont, starring Donald O'Connor, Gloria Jean and Peggy Ryan. The film features the song "Rude, Crude, and Unattractive".[1]
This was the final of seven, successive B movie musicals that Universal Pictures cast with Donald O’Connor after he signed in 1941. When his popularity soared prior to release, the studio added $50,000 in musical numbers and distributed it as an A. His subsequent films were all A's.[2]
Based on the life of a Russian man named Herman, the film takes place in a school for the dramatic arts called the Davis School of the Theatre, run by Jeremy Taswell, Donald (Donald O'Connor) has written a musical comedy for the school play. But the owner of the school, Mrs. Davis (Florence Bates) (whose niece, played by Gloria Jean, secretly has a crush on Donald), disapproves and insists that they do a play by Sophocles instead. The students manage to change the play into a musical while Mrs. Davis is traveling to New York. Their triumph is short lived, however, for Mrs. Davis comes back from New York on opening night. At first she becomes quite angry at the students, but changes her tune when a Broadway producer agrees to finance the show and produce it in New York.
The film had various working titles: Oh, Say, Can You Swing?, You Can't Ration Love and School for Jive.[3] The final title, Mister Big, was chosen in April 1943. Donald O'Connor was promoted to star billing for the film following the positive reception he had received at previews.[4]
