Thanks a Million (1935) in Color — Starring Dick Powell & Ann Dvorak

Thanks a Million (1935) — Buy This Classic in Color

Thanks a Million is a 1935 American musical comedy directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak, Fred Allen, Paul Whiteman and Patsy Kelly. It follows a struggling band singer who is pushed into politics as a publicity stunt and discovers that honesty is the last thing anyone around him actually wants. Packed with songs, sharp dialogue and a supporting cast of radio and vaudeville favourites, it is one of the breeziest backstage-and-ballot-box comedies of the thirties. Own this classic movie in color as a DRM-free MP4 digital download for just €15.00.

Plot Summary

The story opens with a political machine in need of a fresh face. A pair of party operatives, played by Fred Allen and Raymond Walburn, are looking for a candidate who can be sold to the public and, more importantly, controlled once elected. What they want is a name with no history and no opinions of his own. What they find, through a chain of accidents, is a band singer named Eric Land, played by Dick Powell, who has spent his working life on the road with a dance orchestra and has never given a thought to government.

Eric is not a natural politician. He is a performer, comfortable in front of a crowd but honest to a fault, and that honesty turns out to be the problem. The operatives install him as a candidate for governor, expecting him to read whatever speech he is handed and stay quiet the rest of the time. His campaign is stage-managed down to the smallest gesture, with the press and the public fed a version of Eric Land that has almost nothing to do with the man himself.

Complicating everything is Sally, played by Ann Dvorak, who knows Eric well enough to see what is being done to him. Their relationship gives the film its emotional centre and its best musical moments, and it also raises the stakes: the more successful the manufactured candidate becomes, the further Eric drifts from the person Sally actually cares about. Around them swirls a comic supporting company, including Patsy Kelly, Benny Baker and Andrew Tombes, who keep the campaign machinery running at a frantic comic pitch.

As the election approaches, Eric begins to understand the arrangement he has walked into. The men who made him expect him to be grateful, obedient and, above all, useful. When he starts speaking his own mind instead of the script, the machine that created him turns on him quickly. The film’s comedy sharpens here, because the joke is not that politics is corrupt but that a candidate who tells the truth is treated as a disaster by everyone whose job depends on him not doing so.

Paul Whiteman and his orchestra appear as themselves, and the musical numbers are woven directly into the campaign spectacle rather than standing apart from it. Songs become rallies, rallies become performances, and the line between entertaining the public and persuading it disappears entirely. That is the film’s real subject, and it is why the musical sequences carry more weight than their running time suggests.

By the final act, Eric has to decide what kind of man he is willing to be in public. The campaign has given him a platform, a following and a set of obligations he never asked for, and the ending turns on a single question: can a man who has been built into a product still choose to be himself?

Cast & Crew

Director: Roy Del Ruth
Stars: Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak, Fred Allen, Paul Whiteman, Patsy Kelly

Why Buy This Classic in Color?

This professionally colourised restoration gives a thirties musical comedy the warmth it was always designed to suggest. The period-accurate costume work is the clearest beneficiary: the band uniforms, the campaign ribbons and the sharp suits of the political operators all read more distinctly once colour separates them from the crowd. Sets and locations that once blended into a single grey now show their texture, from the brass and wood of the bandstand to the bunting and banners of the rally scenes, which is exactly the kind of visual information the original art directors built and audiences of 1935 would have seen. The restoration also serves the performances, because Dick Powell’s easy charm and Fred Allen’s dry comic timing depend on small facial details that colorization makes easier to read on a modern screen. What emerges is a film that feels less like an artefact and more like a night out. Buy it at €15.00 and start watching with an instant DRM-free MP4 download.

Historical Significance

Thanks a Million arrived in 1935 at a moment when Hollywood was unusually willing to laugh at the machinery of American politics. The film’s premise, a manufactured candidate sold to the public like a product, was timely then and has only grown more pointed with age. It was a substantial commercial success for its studio and helped confirm Dick Powell as one of the most bankable musical leading men of the decade, following his rise at Warner Bros. in the early thirties.

Roy Del Ruth was one of the most reliable directors of the period, equally at home in musicals, comedies and crime pictures, and his pacing here keeps the campaign satire moving without letting the musical numbers feel like interruptions. The supporting cast is a snapshot of the era’s entertainment world: Fred Allen came from radio comedy, Paul Whiteman was among the most famous bandleaders in America, and Patsy Kelly was one of the funniest character players on the lot. Ann Dvorak, already known for dramatic roles, gives the film a grounding presence that keeps the comedy from floating away.

The film remains worth watching because its central joke has not dated. A public figure invented by handlers, marketed to voters and then punished for telling the truth is a story each generation seems to rediscover. Colorization brings this classic to new audiences who might otherwise skip a black-and-white musical comedy, letting them see the costumes, the bandstand and the campaign spectacle as they were meant to look.

Technical Details

• Format: MP4 / MKV digital download
• Resolution: HD 720p
• Colorized: Professionally colorized from original black and white
• Audio: English original mono
• Runtime: 87 minutes
• DRM-free: Yes — watch on any device
• Instant download: Available immediately after purchase
• Price: €15.00 (token, rendered by the site)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Movie-Specific Questions

Q: Was Thanks a Million originally released in color?
A: No. Thanks a Million was shot in black and white and released that way in 1935. This page offers a later professional colorized restoration, not a studio colour release.

Q: Who plays the band singer pushed into politics in Thanks a Million?
A: Dick Powell plays Eric Land, the singer who is recruited as a manufactured political candidate. Ann Dvorak plays Sally, and Fred Allen and Raymond Walburn play the operatives running the campaign.

Q: Is Paul Whiteman in Thanks a Million?
A: Yes. Bandleader Paul Whiteman and his orchestra appear in the film, and their musical numbers are built into the campaign sequences rather than staged separately.

Digital Download Questions

Q: What format is the download?
A: The film is delivered as MP4 and MKV files that play on virtually any device.
Q: Is there DRM on the file?
A: No. The download is completely DRM-free so you can watch it on any device without restrictions.
Q: How quickly can I watch after purchase?
A: Your download link is available instantly after payment, so you can start watching within minutes.

Related Colorized Classics

• Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
• Harvey (1950)
• Bob le Flambeur (1956)
• The Devil and the Ten Commandments (1962)