You’ll Find Out (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940)

Bat Head 2

One Sheet

Production Company: RKO Radio Pictures

Producer: David Butler

Director: David Butler

Assistant Director: Fred A. Fleck

Screenplay: James V. Kern

Original Story: David Butler and James V. Kern

Special Material: Monte Brice, Andrew Bennison and R.T.M. Scott

Musical Director: Roy Webb

Musical Arrangements: George Dunning

Music and Lyrics: Jimmy McHugh and Johnny Mercer

Cinematography: Frank Redman

Special Effects: Vernon L. Walker

Art Direction: Van Nest Polglase

Associate Art Director: Carroll Clarke

Gowns: Edward Stevenson

Set Decoration: Darrell Silvera

Recorder: Earl A Wolcott

Special Sound and Musical Effects: Sonovox

Editor: Irene Morra

Running Time: 97 minutes

Copyright Number: LP10334, November 2, 1940

Cast:

Kay Kyser: Himself

Peter Lorre: Professor Fenninger

Boris Karloff: Judge Mainwaring

Bela Lugosi: Prince Saliano

Helen Parrish: Janis Bellacrest

Dennis O’Keefe: Chuck Deems

Alma Kruger: Aunt Margo

Kay Kyser’s Orchestra: Themselves. Featuring Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt, Ish Kabibble, and Sully Mason

Joseph Eggenton: Jurgen

Leonard Mudie: The real Professor Karl Fenniger

Louise Currie: Marion

Mimi Montaye: Mimi

Mary Martha Wood:

Joan Warner: Joan

Mary Bovard:

Dorothy Moore: Penny

Jane Patten: Jane

Joseph North: Servant

Frank Mills: Taxi driver

Bess Flowers: Lady in taxi

Larry McGarth: Apartment complainer

Jeff Corey: Mr. Corey

Eleanor Lawson: Ms. Gaby Lawson

Eugenia Raffe: French Maid

Beulah Parkington: Mother

Frank O’Connor: Apartment Responder

Mary Bovard: Mary

Jeanne Houser: Jean

Richard Kipling: Scriptman

William Telaak: Mac

Trenton Evening Times, September 20, 1940

Motion Picture Herald Magazine

Trade Advertisement

Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 2, 1940

You'll Find Out, Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 2, 1940 a

New York Times, November 15th, 1940

You have really got to be fond of Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge band in order to get any pleasure out of the show at the Roxy this week. For the professor demeritus and his boys (and girl) moved in there yesterday to appear not only on the stage in one of their quiz sessions, but also upon the screen in RKO’s “You’ll Find Out.” In the former, they’re on their own and consequently responsible for their actions; but in the latter they’re all mixed up with a lot of movie actors and a plot, so it’s hard to say who should take the blame.

For “You’ll Find Out” is one of those silly shudder-comedies, in which Mr. Kyser and his hep cats appear as the innocent bystanders who naturally become involved in an eerie attempt at murder in a forbidding old Massachusetts house. They have, it develops, arrived there to play at a deb party, but Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre have arrived before them, determined to bump off the guest of honor and—ah-ha!—obtain her inheritance. So the party is quite a cozy shindig, with seances and mysterious accidents and occasional renditions by the band to keep it properly confused.

Apparently the script writers were scared out of their wits by their own ideas, for the dialogue and plot developments indicate that little was devoted to them. With three of the most calculating villains vis-a-vis Mr. Kyser in one film, you would think that something more original than shrieks in the night and sliding panels and hidden passageways could have been contrived to confound them. Some of the incidents are amusing, mainly because of Mr. Kyser’s frightened-rabbit attitude when in the midst of them. But, on the whole, the picture is just routine and dull.
YOU’LL FIND OUT, screen play by James V. Kern; based on a story by Mr. Kern and David Butler; produced and directed by David Butler for RKO-Radio. At the Roxy.
Kay Kyser . . . . . Himself
Professor Fenninger . . . . . Peter Lorre
Judge Mainwaring . . . . . Boris Karloff
Chuck Deems . . . . . Dennis O’Keefe
Prince Saliano . . . . . Bela Lugosi
Janis Bellacrest . . . . . Helen Parrish
Aunt Margo . . . . . Alma Kruger
Jurgen . . . . . Joseph Eggenton
Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt, Ish Kabibble, Sully Mason.