Meet Me on Broadway (1946)

This economy-minded Columbia backstage musical opens with overly fussy director-choreographer Eddie Dolan (wartime star-substitute Fred Brady) in exigent mode, much in the Cole manner. Closing the movie are two archetypal Cole numbers: a perfect capture of his nightclub rhumba routine (using costumes that also appear in Tonight and Every Night) and a backyard tomboy-romp that morphs into a waltz, one of Cole’s oft-repeated themes. -Museum of Modern Art