Anything Goes

Anything Goes is a 1936 American musical film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, Charles Ruggles and Ida Lupino. It is based on the 1934 stage musical Anything Goes by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, which included songs by Cole Porter. When Paramount sold the film's television rights, it retitled the film Tops Is the Limit because the 1956 film version, also produced by Paramount, was currently running in theaters. Plot A young man falls in love with a beautiful woman whom he follows onto a luxury liner, where he discovers that she is an English heiress who fled her home and is being returned to England. He also discovers that his boss is on the ship. To avoid identification, he disguises himself as the gangster accomplice of a minister, who is actually a gangster running from the law. Cast Bing Crosby as Billy Crocker Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney Charles Ruggles as Rev. Dr. Moon Ida Lupino as Hope Harcourt Grace Bradley as Bonnie LeTour Arthur Treacher as Sir Evelyn Oakleigh Robert McWade as Elisha J. Whitney Richard Carle as Bishop Dobson Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Wentworth Jerry Tucker as Junior Matt Moore as Capt. McPhail Edward Gargan as Detective Matt McHugh as Detective Budd Fine as Pug-Ugly Jack Mulhall as Ship's Purser Jack Norton as Drunken passenger The Avalon Boys as Quartet