The Great Victor Herbert (1939)

I didn't like The Great Victor Herbert at all. It's a jukebox musical using the music of Victor Herbert with the character of Victor Herbert functioning as a kind of ringmaster or yenta for the two main characters, played by Allan Jones and Mary Martin (both in gorgeous voice). But The Great Victor Herbert is really a riff on the Star Is Born plot, and these plot machinations, where the husband is an egomaniacal jerk and the wife is longsuffering, sacrificial, and faithful are so boring. In fact, I was really bored by this whole business. The music great, obviously, but this plot is tired.

Hi Diddle Diddle (1943)

This would be a totally forgettable romantic comedy caper if it weren't for the fabulous intertextuality that pervades the film. There is animated Wagnerian wallpaper, a running meta-cinematic gag about an actress who plays multiple parts in the movie, and an actress who sings a duet with a Panoram (look it up) of herself. This is a delight. As for the title Hi Diddle Diddle, I have no idea why this movie is called this, but I guess it must be somewhere in:

...the cat and the fiddle

the cow jumped over the moon

the little dog laughed

to see such sport

and the dish ran away with the spoon.

Maybe Martha Scott is supposed to be the dish?