Connie Casey, an enegetic celebrity heiress, wants to go to Pottawatomie College in Stop Gap, New Mexico, her father's alma mater, to be near her latest beau, British playwright Beverly Waverly. To protect her, and without her knowledge, her tycoon father sends four Ivy League football players as her bodyguards, Clint Kelly, Jojo Jordan, Manuelito and Al Terwilliger, who sign a contract with an "anti-romance" clause. The college is in bad financial straits and the bodyguards use their salaries to help the college. They also join the college's terrible football team, which immediately becomes one of the best in the country. Clint falls in love with Connie, but when she discovers he is her bodyguard, she decides to go back East. The bodyguards follow her, leaving the team in the lurch. The people of Stop Gap go after them, and they are brought back just in time for the big game. Connie declares her love for Clint, and he leads the team to victory.
Desi Arnaz, Eddie Bracken, Hal LeRoy, Libby Bennett, Ivy Scott, Byron Shores and Van Johnson all also appeared in the Broadway musical the film is based on, playing the same characters. It was the Broadway debut for all of them except LeRoy.
During the course of filming, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz fell in love. They eloped on November 30, 1940.
Production
RKO paid $100,000 for the rights to the Broadway musical. Filming on Too Many Girls began on June 22, 1940.
Songs
The songs in Too Many Girls were all written by Richard Rodgers, who composed the music, and Lorenz Hart, who wrote the lyrics. The songs are:
All the songs also appeared in the Brodway music, except for "You're Nearer". Songs which were used in the stage musical which were not used in the film were "Tempt Me Not", "My Prince", "I Like to Recognize the Tune", "The Sweethearts of the Team", "She Could Shake the Maracas", "Too Many Girls", and "Give it Back to the Indians".
Critical response
of The New York Times wrote that Too Many Girls wa a "pleasant, light-hearted and wholly ingenuous campus film" but that director George Abbot "has permitted it to sag in the middle, at which point the thin spots baldly show." He complained that some of the dancer numbers looked dark and gloomy. "If the intention was to be impressive, it has failed. For 'Too Many Girls' is a simple, conventional rah-rah picture, without any place for pretense. And there is not enough to it, on the whole, for Mr. Abbott to squander dancers recklessly."
