Higher and Higher

Higher and Higher is a 1944 musical film starring Michèle Morgan, Jack Haley, and Frank Sinatra, loosely based on a 1940 Broadway musical written by Gladys Hurlbut and Joshua Logan. The film version, written by Jay Dratler and Ralph Spence with additional dialogue by William Bowers and Howard Harris, diverges significantly from its source. The film has songs by Jimmy McHugh (music) and Harold Adamson (lyrics), as well as one song by Rodgers and Hart, "Disgustingly Rich", that remains from the stage production. Plot The household staff of millionaire piano manufacturer Cyrus Drake hasn't been paid for seven months when his bankruptcy and impending foreclosure is announced. With the wife and daughter of Cyrus on a long trip abroad, a scheme is formed to pass off the attractive young scullery maid Millie as the socialite daughter, Pamela Drake, and marry her off to a rich man so there will be money for all. The valet, Mike O'Brien, helps with the transformation, unaware that Millie is secretly in love with him. Asked if she had ever been courted, Millie mentions that she likes the way a young man next door sometimes sings to her. His name is Frank Sinatra; his crooning is featured, to the delight of his bobby soxer fan base. There are also many tongue-in-cheek jokes at his expense, e.g. "You sound like someone I've heard on the radio!" and "I'm going to listen to Bing!".