Hitting a New High (1937): Raoul Walsh Directs Lili Pons

In Hitting a New High, one of Raoul Walsh’s few weak films, Lily Pons plays a nighclub singer who wants to be an opera singer.  To that extent, she is sent by her agent (Jack Oakie) to pursue a rich opera lover (Edward Everett Horton), who is in Africa on Safari.

Dressing up as Ooga-Hunga (the Bad Girl), she impresses him with her voice and lands a contract with the Metropoloitan Opera.

Despie ambition and effort, Lily Pons never became a successful screen star.

Oscar Nominations: 1

Sound Recording: John Aalberg

Oscar Context

The Sound Oscar went to Thomas Moulton for “The Hurricane.”