Tin Pan Alley

"All good-lookin' like he is, there's no use in getting' yourself all messed up", a black boy ponders, when 'Skeets' Harrigan (John Payne) drops out of a promising boxing career to pursue his dreams of becoming a renowned Tin Pan Alley song publisher with his friend from the Midwest, Harry Calhoun (Jack Oakie). On their way to the top they meet the Blane sisters, Katie (Alice Faye) and Lily (Betty Grable). 'Skeets' and Katie fall in love, but he is adamantly focused on his career and when he gives a song meant for Katie to a famous musical star, she has had it and leaves for London with her sister. That is when World War I erupts ...

'Tin Pan Alley' has more charm than it has plot, and it's a delightful watch with charismatic actors. Faye and Grable are a wonderful pair of tap-dancing sisters, Oakie is genuinely funny as the befuddled average Joe playing at being a tough guy, and John Payne, a Robert Taylor look-alike, clearly in a role that must have been written for typical Faye co-star Tyrone Power, rises to the occasion and delivers his all, a perfect mix of athletic hunkiness and crooning abilities, not the easiest performance to pull of, as 'Skeets' is quite callous in the way he presses forward.

The film abounds with great music and showpieces, 'Honeysuckle Rose' in Faye's very nice rendition with a boy chorus, 'The Sheik of Araby' featuring glorious tap-dancing by The Nicholas Brothers, the rousing "America, I Love You", and the only song actually written for the film, Harry Warren's 'You Say the Sweetest Things (Baby)", utilized to the fullest in a clever montage.

This is a delightful film with some of the best stars from the 40's. Alice Faye has been a personal favorite of mine for years and her beautiful contralto singing voice is only one reason. She is also charming and beautiful, and it's no wonder she was 20th Century Fox's top blonde star for many years (until Betty Grable, who is, of course, also in this film). Alice and Betty make believable sisters and perform some knockout numbers together (especially "The Sheik of Araby", which also boasts the talents of the marvelous Nicholas Brothers). Alice is paired romantically in the film with John Payne (a frequent costar), and their chemistry makes you understand why Fox paired them often in film. The songs are delightful and the movie captures the image of Tin Pan Alley that may not have existed in reality, but isn't the image on film more romantic and lovely to look at? The only quibble I have: why, oh why wasn't this filmed in Technicolor?

Tin Pan Alley was the first try at a successful experiment Darryl Zanuck was trying. An actor who was as good looking as Tyrone Power and could contribute musically to the film. He found one in John Payne this was the first of four films that Payne and Faye did together. They were scheduled to do a fifth with The Dolly Sisters, but Alice retired after being offered that script.

Payne slipped very well into Ty Power's hero/heel character that he patented at 20th Century Fox. Payne's character Skeets Harrigan and his partner Jack Oakie are trying to hit it big in the music publishing industry pre World War I. He meets Alice Faye and her sister Betty Grable doing a vaudeville act and he falls for Faye bigtime. He loves her, but he wants success more. How they resolve their ambitions is crux of the movie.

Alice Faye and Betty Grable in their only film together play the Blane sisters. Alice is in good voice as always and she gets the best songs in the film. Payne partners her in the film's best number America I Love You and he also reprises with her in the only original song for the film, You Say The Sweetest Things, Baby.

You Say The Sweetest Things Baby was written by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Mack Gordon. Gordon had written with Harry Revel a whole group of songs that Faye introduced. But Revel left Fox and Darryl Zanuck teamed Gordon with Warren who had just left Warner Brothers. It was a felicitous teaming and Gordon and Warren wrote a whole group of some of the best loved tunes of the 40s, Chatanooga Choo Choo being the most famous and also You'll Never Know, probably Faye's best loved song.

In watching films like Tin Pan Alley something is lost unless you're an amateur historian like me. Esther Ralston does a cameo as Nora Bayes who was one of the best loved vaudeville stars pre-World War I. In 1940 people still knew who Nora Bayes was. Now I'm sure she draws a great big "who" from most people if they're asked who she is. A key scene in the movie is after Faye has delivered a smash version of America I Love You, Payne gives in to Nora Bayes request for the song because of his ambition. That's totally lost on younger viewers.

Actually Nora Bayes did introduce a very famous World War I era song, written by a guy who normally introduced his own material. She gave the first public performance of Over There written by George M. Cohan and documented nicely in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

You never ever go wrong watching an Alice Faye film.

From the first time I saw Tin Pan Alley I played it over and over, because I enjoyed the music so much and the stars were in top form. While I rarely seek out the actors in films made to-day, I tune into any old film featuring Alice Faye, John Payne, Betty Grable or Jack Oakie, hoping to find something just as engaging. The unabashed sentimentality of the music and simple straight forward humour make it a refreshing change from to-day's tasteless films. While Alice Faye tackles the love songs with John Payne, as a consumate professional, I am always sure he is using a lot of self control not break into laughter, and that they had a lot of fun making the movie.

Alice Faye and Betty Grable team up in this costume musical as a pair of singing sisters. You have to hear the classic tune "K-K-K-Katy," sung by Jack Oakie using different lyrics throughout the movie, then sung and danced at the end by the sisters on stage and by marching World War I doughboys. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013