Melody for Two (1937)

A professional triangle with some personal twists thrown in is presented. Bandleader Tod Weaver has a successful New York career with Gale Starr, his girl, his lead female vocalist - Tod being the lead male vocalist - performing urbane classy melodically driven songs, expertly arranged by Mel Lynch, in upscale uptown clubs. Tod and Mel have a falling out, partly because of Mel's interest in Gale professionally and personally, with neither backing down from their principled positions of Tod not wanting anything to do with Mel ever again, and Mel wanting to ruin Tod. Gale somewhat sides with Mel if only for the survival of her own career, which leads to Gale taking over Tod's band at their latest gig at the Sky Terrace, and Tod being blacklisted by uptown clubs and the bandleaders' association. But with Tod goes his faithful manager Remorse Rumson and publicist Scoop Trotter, whose professional lives are also at stake. The three have different perspectives of how to get Tod on his feet again. They collectively have to decide whether to take the risk of a different direction spurred by an idea by Camille Casey, one of Remorse's hangers-on who he thought was only going to be a casual one-nighter. Those changes include featuring an all female band, and not playing classy uptown music but rather down and dirty downtown swing.