the audience applauded

Good concept, poorly executed.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Any movie star, even the greatest, under contract to a studio had his or her share of duds. But this is one I have trouble understanding. How did James Stewart, an actor who probably is in the top 10 of all-time great stars, land in this film? Especially after just winning the Oscar."Pot o' Gold" appears to have been an independent production by one James Roosevelt, FDR's son, and it was distributed through United Artists. It's about a young man, James Hamilton Haskel, who runs his dad's music store. The store isn't doing well, and his Uncle Charley (Charles Winninger) wants him to be part of his big health food business. James accepts for financial reasons. Uncle Charley is going crazy with the swing music being played next to his factory by the McCorkle family and Horace Heidt's band. Ma McCorkle and Uncle Charley hate one another. Without knowing that he's related to Uncle Charlie, the daughter, Molly (Paulette Goddard) falls for James. This leads to all sorts of complications, culminating on a radio show, the Haskel Happiness Hour.This is a mid-level musical at best, with Jimmy doing some of his own singing, though he's also dubbed, and Paulette Goddard, who came close to being Scarlett O'Hara, is dubbed all the way through. The band music is very good."Pot o' Gold" has a low-budget look to it, and supposedly James Stewart hated this film. I can't blame him. I just don't know how or why he and Goddard became mixed up in it.

Ugh! How anyone can lavish all sorts of praise on this terrible mess of a film is beyond belief. JAMES STEWART always considered it his worst movie and I can certainly understand why. Not only is it a Poverty Row film made on the cheap (and it looks it), but it came at a time when his budding film career was heading toward a high crest of the wave. He became a huge star despite this indiscretion.PAULETTE GODDARD is as lively and pleasant as usual, but she's totally wasted as his screen sweetheart. The music is terribly banal, as is most of the dialog, and the whole film has the look of a Public Domain print that nobody bothered to clear up--it looks as though it was filmed underwater! I struggled to watch most of it and finally gave up. Life is too short to waste on films of this caliber, even if Jimmy and Paulette are two of my favorites.

This is a truly amazing film. Jimmy Stewart had just won the Oscar for his performance in PHILADELPHIA STORY and then he was loaned out to a poverty row studio to make this low-budget mess! Surely you would have thought he merited material better than this terrible film! Jimmy plays an idealistic musician--an odd bit of casting, but hey--it's Hollywood. Anyways, trying to live this life as a music instructor isn't easy and it's obvious he won't get rich, but he staunchly refuses to join his uncle (Charles Winninger) in business. The rest of the plot and how they brought Paulette Goddard into this mess of a film is really irrelevant--as there are so many distracting and forgettable songs that it seems less of a movie and more of a long series of music videos strung along by a tenuous plot! What a waste to make a film like this when you have Jimmy Stewart! In fact, after a while, I was so tired of this dull film that I really had to struggle to watch--it was that bad. I recommend this film only for film historians and people who insist on seeing EVERY Stewart film!

A musical comedy that could withstand any other production since it was done straight forward in front of the cameras and no dubbing was used. It's therefore a remarkable production. It's a pity that no comment has been given on the part of James Stewart's handling the harmonica in such an excellent way. It was Jerry Adler, the younger brother of Larry, that taught James how to hold the harmonica in a professional way. One would think he is really playing himself. As a harmonica player myself, I was disappointed by the fact that the harmonica band were stand-in players, and not the real "Cappy Barra Harmonica Band." Overall an excellent and entertaining movie with some of the best musicians in the business at that time.