He started working for Warner Brothers in 1932, paired with Dubin to write the score for the first blockbuster film musical, "42nd Street", and continued to work there for six years, writing the scores for 32 more musicals. He worked for 20th Century Fox starting in 1940, writing with Mack Gordon. He moved to MGM starting in 1944, writing for musical films such as "The Harvey Girls" and "The Barkleys of Broadway", many starring Fred Astaire. He later worked for Paramount, starting in the early 1950s, writing for the Bing Crosby movie "Just for You" and the Martin and Lewis movie "The Caddy", the latter containing the hit song "That's Amore". He continued to write songs for several more Jerry Lewis comedies.