Thanks For Listening (1937)
Thanks For Listening (aka Partly Confidential) stars Pinky Tomlin (also see Sing While You're Able). It's impressive how the Brian Sisters so often had 'second appearances' in films with the same stars.
The film was released on July 12th 1937 in USA.
In this film they sing two songs, one after 30 mins, Listen To Me, while wearing placards advertising Homer's (Pinky Tomlin) 'Professional Listening Service', then right at the end they sing The Love Bug Will Bite You, which was written, of course, by Mr. Tomlin and later sold to Disney.
The girls were allowed to sing without obvious interference to their own style, which is refreshing. As in Sing While You're Able, Mr Tomlin encouraged them to 'do it their way' and thus achieved excellent results!
The Brian Sisters sing The Love Bug Will Bite You at the Homer Tomkins Duck Ranch. Tomlin sings it earlier in the film (about 17 mins in). This is a good, swinging song. It was actually written by the film's star, Pinky Tomlin, but his rendering of his own composition earlier in the film is simply not a patch on the girls', especially their 'scat' singing, which is inventive and perfectly fits the song; better than Pinky's own insertion of snippets from other songs. The girls sound far more comfortable with the song than does Mr. Tomlin. Very well done!
Remember that the girls couldn't read music (could you, at that age?) and their arrangements were their own, by listening to the tune and deciding on their own style and variations themselves. In this example, in particular, their slight variant on Pinky Tomlin's original is much better - and as usual their harmonizing is spot on!
The girls are in the cast credits as 'Three Brian Sisters'.
Intriguingly, the girls were cast as Sally (Doris), Irene (Gwen) and Mary (Betty) in this film. Surely the correspondence to the title rôles in the film Sally, Irene and Mary (released in March 1938) is not just coincidence?
Earlier in the film the girls sing Listen To Me, as they advertise and promote Homer Tomkins' (Pinky Tomlin) new venture as a 'professional listener'. Their singing is proficient as they mix with the potential customers, but their movements are at times somewhat stilted.
The picture and sound quality of this film is considerably worse than the others; barely acceptable.
You should be able to find a DVD of the film (as Thanks For Listening) - get it! Two complete Brian Sisters songs on one movie must be good. Especially when the girls sing so well.