Blue of the Night 1931

The film opens with Bing Crosby, a famous radio singer, delivering a farewell performance at a nightclub, where he sings My Silent Love and, at the crowd’s request, Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear. Later, he happens to board a train at the same time as a young woman, Marian Bradley, and they are mistakenly showered with confetti intended for another party. The passengers and a train porter assume they are newlyweds and present them with a perambulator and two baby dolls. Marian, not recognizing him, tries to impress by saying she is engaged to Bing Crosby. When she says that it is the first night she has not heard Bing sing, he tells her that he has a portable radio. As his berth in the sleeper train is the one immediately above hers, he says that he will play it for her. In the upper berth he simulates radio tuning noises and then sings Ev’ry Time My Heart Beats accompanying himself on guitar.

Subsequently, Marian’s friends see a newspaper report about her engagement to Bing Crosby. Gilbert Sinclair is indignant and says that it was taken for granted that he and Marian were engaged. Marian denies any such arrangement and is then told that Bing has telephoned to say he is arriving that afternoon.

When Bing arrives, he tells Marian that he is Jack Smith, a reporter, and that he had put news of her engagement in the press. She confesses that she lied and is in an embarrassing position with her friends and he promises to help her. Their conversation is overheard by Gilbert and when Bing meets Marian’s friends and explains how he met Marian, Gilbert tries to expose him and wagers his Cadillac car that Bing is an imposter.

To prove his identity to Marian’s friends and to a police patrolman who holds the car keys and Bing’s five dollar stake, Bing sings his signature tune Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day), finishing the song as he and Marian drive off in the car leaving Gilbert floundering in the swimming pool after resisting the loss of his automobile.