The Hard-Boiled Canary is a 1941 American musical comedyfilm directed by Andrew L. Stone and written by Robert Lively and Andrew L. Stone. It was later reissued as There's Magic in Music.
Young and carefree Michael Maddy helps run Interlochen Center for the Arts for his ill father. A burlesque performer in a skimpy costume, Toodles LaVerne, impresses him with her voice, enough so that Michael makes and wins a wager with opera-company publicist George Thomas that she's good enough to sing professionally.
The joint is raided and entertainer Madie Duvalle is arrested by the police, but Toodles gets away with Michael's help. He enrolls her in the music camp over the objections of Sylvia Worth, his efficiency expert, and other campers partly because of Toodles's appearance and also because she can't even read music. Michael and George scrub off the stage makeup over Toodles's objections, whereupon she sings a number that impresses everyone at camp. Michael wants her to audition for a New York City opera house.
Madie, out of jail now, does a magazine story about Toodles' past life. The music camp's appalled financial backers pull their funds and their students. In the end, though, Michael manages to get Toodles in front of the opera company, where she wins everyone's approval.
