Get Hep to Love

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Get Hep to Love is a 1942 American musical film directed by Charles Lamont. It stars Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige, and Peggy Ryan. The 77-minute movie was released by Universal Pictures on October 2, 1942.

Plot
Doris Stanley, a 14-year-old singer treated like a child prodigy by her money-loving aunt, runs away when the aunt won’t keep a promise to help with her tour. Doris ends up in a small town and pretends to be seeking an adoptive home for a married couple, Ann and Steve Winters, who are having marriage troubles. Doris’s singing talent wins friends at the high school and catches the attention of the music teacher, Miss Roberts. A newspaper offers a $5,000 reward for the missing girl, drawing a detective to investigate. The aunt grows suspicious and sends a detective to follow Doris. Steve tries to secure money for any custody fight by selling a large life insurance policy to a stingy client. Doris is allowed to sing in a local recital, impressing the crowd and the detective. In a courtroom twist, it’s revealed the aunt never legally adopted Doris, and Doris is old enough to choose her own adoptive parents. She selects the Winters couple, while the aunt is granted visitation rights. At the Prom, Doris is escorted by Jimmy, whose original date is out with the mumps.

Music and connections
The film’s soundtrack includes Eva Dell’Acqua’s “Villanelle” (for coloratura soprano) in an uncredited appearance. The main cast had appeared together in Gloria Jean’s earlier 1942 film What's Cookin’, and Jean, O’Connor, and Ryan would team up again in It Comes Up Love and Mister Big.