I absolutely agree that the clip exhibits a much brighter perspective of life. Money is a topic that comes up twice in a passive manner as though as not to highlight its significance or importance but to be viewed as more of a passing thought. “Oh, five pounds? Yeah no big deal”, “Those flowers must be expensive, but gee, aren’t they beautiful?”. During the era in which the film was released, I would say the lightness with which money is brought up definitely does not reflect the actual struggles of real life at the time.
The lightheartedness of the conflict between the men, the rather aloof way Miss Held “weighed” her options about meeting Ziegfeld and the shot of a seemingly full theatre are all examples of what I would expect to see from a depression era musical. Overall, the audience would want to feel at ease while watching a musical, any tension would want to be avoided so that the audience could step away from troubles and worries and enjoy a fictional world of easy lifestyles.
Specifically, had this been a pre-code film, I would imagine that the dance routine to the song sung by Miss Held herself would have held more sexual undertones as well as the costume she wore.
