Anything Goes

film by Milestone [1936]

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July 15, 2026

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Anything Goes (1936) is a film directed by Lewis Milestone, loosely based on a Broadway musical with music by Cole Porter. The film stars Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, and Ida Lupino. It was one of Milestone's more successful films of the 1930s, a period where he also directed acclaimed adaptations like All Quiet on the Western Front and Of Mice and Men. The musical film genre, which integrates musical numbers into a plot, gained prominence with The Jazz Singer in 1927 and saw popular stars like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Judy Garland emerge throughout the following decades.12

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Lewis Milestone
Films of the 1930s
Milestone had more success with Anything Goes (1936), a very loose adaptation of a Broadway play featuring music by Cole Porter; it starred Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, and Ida Lupino. The General Died at Dawn was one of 1936’s best pictures, an entertaining thriller set in turbulent China, with Gary…
Read More
Milestone had more success with Anything Goes (1936), a very loose adaptation of a Broadway play featuring music by Cole Porter; it starred Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, and Ida Lupino. The General Died at Dawn was one of 1936’s best pictures, an entertaining thriller set in turbulent China, with Gary…
Read More