Wake Up and Live

One of Darryl F. Zanuck's peculiar quirks was that he frowned upon his musical stars making records. Unlike Bing Crosby who recorded nearly all the songs he sang in Paramount films and numbers from other Paramount films with the encouragement of Adolph Zukor, Zanuck felt that if the public bought records they wouldn't pay to see his films. Alice Faye did manage to record about 20 sides during the Thirties and the last batch she did was four songs from Wake Up And Live. Good thing to because Mack Gordon and Harry Revel wrote some of their best material for this film.

The film itself was based on a make believe radio feud between columnist Walter Winchell and band-leader Ben Bernie who play themselves on screen. Make believe feuds among radio personalities was a common enough thing back in the day, it made for interesting programming and bigger Hooper ratings. The Hooper was the radio equivalent of the Nielsen before television became commercial.

Jack Haley and Grace Bradley are a pair of vaudevillians who travel to New York hoping to cash in on the fact that Haley's sister Patsy Kelly is Walter Winchell's assistant. A mention in Winchell's column gets them inundated with offers, but Haley who apparently has no problem performing before a live audience of a hundred or so in a theater, gets paralyzed with fear over speaking and singing into a microphone that will broadcast to millions.

But one night when Alice Faye is singing on Ben Bernie's program, Haley is in an empty studio singing into what he thinks is a dead mike. His voice comes over the air and no one knows who it is. Immediately he's dubbed 'The Phantom Troubadour' and the hunt is on to find him. It's a contest between Winchell, Bernie, and a bottom feeding sleaze-bag agent played by Walter Catlett. Of course Faye finds out first and looks to exploit Haley in her own way.

It's a nonsensical plot, from an era that spawned this kind of nonsense. Doesn't detract a whit from the fact it's an entertaining film with Alice Faye singing at her very best.

But you won't hear the familiar voice of Jack Haley that you know as the Tinman from The Wizard of Oz. Instead Haley's voice in this film is dubbed by one of the great radio crooners of the time, Buddy Clark. Buddy never did too much work before the camera, but on radio he was one of the most popular singers in his era. Sadly he was killed in a plane crash right before the era of television, I'm sure he would have made it big there.

Alice and Buddy get to sing the title song, Never In A Million Years and Swell Of You. Alice does There's A Lull In My Life and Buddy sings Ooh, But I'm Happy.

Long before I finally got to see Wake Up And Live I had a long playing 33 1/3 vinyl album of Alice Faye with the four songs she sings before Zanuck put an end to her recording career. I knew the songs and loved them. So it was a special treat for me to finally see the film and more so to hear Buddy Clark sing as well even if the words came out of Jack Haley's mouth.

I think if you can ever catch Wake Up And Live you will feel as I do about the great singing voice of Buddy Clark.

Walter Winchell started in vaudeville as a performer in Gus Edwards's 'School Days' act. (A fictionalised version of this remarkable troupe became Bing Crosby's movie 'The Star Maker'.) Between engagements, Winchell wrote and published a vaudeville newsletter, filled with showbiz gossip. He eventually became a newspaper/radio columnist, utterly ruthless in his power, quick to destroy an enemy's career and (less frequently) to aid a friend. (The Broadway revue 'Hellzapoppin' was trashed by all the critics, yet ran for more than 3 years because Winchell plugged it in his column every single day.) Although many actors and entertainers desperately coveted a mention in Winchell's column, nearly everyone in show business despised him. (Ed Sullivan once threatened to shove Winchell's head into a toilet.) Winchell wisely avoided feuding with his many enemies, aware that such action would only give them free publicity. One of Winchell's few real friends was popular radio bandleader Ben Bernie, and the two concocted a public 'feud' that was a long-running publicity stunt for them both. Several movies - most notably 'Sweet Smell of Success' and 'Blessed Event' - feature fictional journalists who are blatantly based upon Winchell.

'Wake Up and Live', an above-average Fox musical, features Winchell and Bernie playing themselves ... or, rather, fictionalised versions of themselves, designed to make Winchell look good and their phony feud look genuine. In a staged scene, Winchell rattles off his extensive knowledge of obscure nightclub acts while identifying a masked singer after hearing only a few notes. In another scene - equally staged, but funny - a shifty promoter played by Walter Catlett tries to offer Winchell a bribe. Winchell takes the money but immediately drops it into a charity poorbox. Catlett attempts to retrieve the cash, only to attract the interest of a passing policeman. This scene pays tribute to one of Winchell's few genuine redeeming traits: he was active for many charitable causes. (Winchell founded the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.) It's fascinating to see Winchell onscreen, even though he's clearing playing a sanitised version of himself. To see him here, you'd never guess he bullied his daughter unmercifully and drove his son to suicide.

Although Winchell and Bernie are prominently featured, the frothy plotline centres on Jack Haley as a would-be radio vocalist and Alice Faye as the singer who encourages him. The sexy and vivacious Faye sings the bouncy title tune. There's a very funny scene in which Haley arrives at the radio station, hoping to audition, when he runs afoul of a sour-tempered studio usher. The usher is played by none other than William Demarest, in his usual mode. It's astonishing to realise that, as late as 1937, Demarest was still playing bit parts like this one ... still, he's very welcome here in his brief scene. Demarest assures Haley that his audition will go well, providing he doesn't get mike fright ... a phenomenon which he then describes to Haley. So, of course, as soon as Haley tries to sing he develops mike fright. There's a delightfully surrealistic sequence in which we see the microphone from Haley's viewpoint, as it morphs into a snarling demon!

There are some lively but irrelevant speciality acts, including a couple of dance routines that would never perform on an actual radio show. Lots of familiar faces in the cast list, and Patsy Kelly is less annoying than usual. The title song is the only good one here. One interesting trivia note: the opening credits of this movie feature two guys from the art department named Mark-Lee Kirk and Haldane Douglas, and their names are stacked onscreen so that 'Kirk' is directly above 'Douglas'. I wonder if a certain dimple-chinned actor, just aspiring to a film career at this point, took his screen name from the credits of this movie? I'll rate 'Wake Up and Live' 9 points out of 10.

Fox musicals are often weighed down by leaden screenplays, dull camera-work, irrelevant specialty acts, and personalities with not that much personality. Some of those traits are evident in this musical-comedy piffle about the Walter Winchell-Ben Bernie feud, but there are compensating pleasures. High among them is Alice Faye warbling good Gordon-Revel songs such as "There's a Lull in My Life" (a surprisingly boring arrangement of it, though, and she's unflatteringly gowned); also, a genuinely funny second couple in Patsy Kelly and Ned Sparks; also, a specialty dance by Joan Davis. Jack Haley's an adequate leading man, though not a particularly charismatic one, and, since the plot turns on his golden voice, his songs are dubbed by Buddy Clark. (Haley could sing, but not well enough to be a "phantom troubadour.") It's brisk and reasonably comical, the musical numbers are fine, and the production bloat that hobbled so many Fox musicals over the next decade is nowhere evident.

Another classic motion picture that has never been available on video and another shame for eager classic movie fans. This 90 minute musical has everything you could ever hope for from a film. Great songs, dancing, comedy, drama, suspense and Alice Faye! The "feud' between Ben Bernie and Walter Winchell (as real as the "feud" of Jack Benny and Fred Allen) inspired this film which takes place during the great days of live radio.

Bernie and Winchell are the main attractions here but Jack Haley, Alice Faye, Patsy Kelly and Ned Sparks are the real stars of this picture. With the fine backing of Fox, this film was one in the long series of musicals featuring Faye and a stellar supporting cast. It is in this film that she introduces the standard classic song, "There's A Lull In My Life".

Jack Haley is featured as a singer who suffers from mike fright. Actually, Haley's wonderful singing voice is dubbed in this film by Buddy Clark! For trivia fans, Haley refers to this role in his next picture, "Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm", when he lets a young girl who is afraid of microphones know that he was once afraid of them too.

The film is a timepiece of an era long gone. If you ever get the chance to see this great film with all of its wonderful songs, "It's Swell Of You","Wake Up And Live" and, "Never In A Million Years", you won't be mislead.

Vaudevllians Jack Haley and Grace Bradley have their radio try-out, but Haley has mike fright and collapses. Miss Bradley walks out, so he gets a job as a page at the station. He makes friends with Alice Faye, and she has him practice with a dummy mike.... which is connected to Ben Bernie's radio feed, so suddenly there's a national craze for 'the Phantom Troubador'. In the midst of this you have top-billed Bernie and Walter Winchell in a slanging feud, as well as Patsy Kelly, Ned Sparks, Walter Catlett, Joan Davis as a Spanish dancer, the Condos Brothers tap-dancing on the radio

Sidney Lanfield directs this three-ring circus on a gigantic Arte Moderne set that bears no relation to reality, with frequent interruptions for a mediocre set of songs by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel. Everyone is dubbed, except for Miss Faye, who sells her songs wonderfully. It's a competent paycheck movie with a bunch of moving parts that nonetheless works in its mechanical fashion.