(1936) The Last Train from Madrid (1937). Most of these were B pictures. He had a small role in an A picture, Souls at Sea (1937), then appeared in Sophie Lang Goes West (1937), Wells Fargo (1937) and College Swing (1938). He had a small role in You and Me (1938) (directed by Fritz Lang), and was in The Texans (1938) and Touchdown, Army (1938). Eventually, Paramount dropped their option on him. "I was poison", he said. "No agent would look at me." In June, Paramount announced he would return for King of Chinatown with Anna May Wong, but he does not appear in the final film. In September he was cast at Republic, playing the lead in the crime movie I Stand Accused (1938). Cummings said it was "...a fluke hit—so at least I could get inside the casting agents again." Universal In November 1938, Cummings auditioned for the romantic lead in Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), starring Deanna Durbin, for producer Joe Pasternak. Pasternak was reluctant to cast him, preferring to find a musician, but Cummings told him, "I could fake it". He later said, "I'd had a lot of experience faking things harder than that. He let me try it and he signed me up." On 21 November Cummings gave Universal an option on a seven-year contract starting at $600 a week, going up to $750 a week the following year, then ultimately up to $3,000 a week. His first film for them, Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) was a big success, and in March 1939 Universal took up their options on the actor. The film was directed by Henry Koster, who called Cummings "brilliant, wonderful… I made five pictures with him. I thought he was the best leading man I ever worked with. He had that marvelous comedy talent and also a romantic quality." Reviewing the film, The New York Times said Cummings "displays a really astonishing talent for light comedy—we never should have suspected it from his other pictures." Pasternak used him again, supporting another singing star, Gloria Jean, in The Under-Pup (1939). (He was meant to reteam with Jean in Straight from the Heart, but it appears not to have been made.) In August 1939 Columbia wanted him for the lead in Golden Boy, but could not come to terms with Universal. Cummings supported Basil Rathbone and Victor McLaglen in Rio (1939),