King of Burlesque

Fox tries to imitate Warner Bros. in this slow-moving backstage romp that stars Alice Faye, Jack Oakie, and Warner Baxter, and directed by Sidney Lanfield. Baxter is the "King of Burlesque" who moves from a burlesque to a legitimate theatre and marries a socialite played by Mona Barrie. Alice Faye, in the typical role of an aspiring actress, looks appropriate for her part, though her presence struck me as cold and unmemorable, compared to her other Fox musicals. The film comes into full view in the last twenty minutes where we see a dazzling display of production numbers that recall those of Busby Berkeley. The film's choreography and songs were nominated for an Oscar. There is fun and frolic and the best songs/numbers are "Shooting High", "Too Good To Be True", "Whose Big Baby Are You" and "Lovely Lady".

Entertaining Fox musical, reminiscent of the great Warners backstage musicals of the early 30's. It even features Warner Baxter in the title role. He, of course, played the production manager in "42nd Street," probably the best known of those Warners musicals. Some favorite moments: Alice Faye singing a brief "Whose Big Baby Are You?" in a rather brief outfit; The "Shooting High" number, with the group around a piano, has a pleasingly impromptu feel about it; Cute little Dixie Dunbar's great tap dancing, in a number featuring Fats Waller. Alice Faye was a wonderful performer who isn't as well known today as many stars from the golden age of Hollywood. You can catch this and other Alice Faye musicals if you have Fox Movie Channel.

It seems many other contributing members are hypercritical of older films. Most films made in the 1930s and 1940s weren't meant to be memorable, just enjoyed for a brief time and then to be forgotten. Now television has resurrected them so people can look at them again.

This film is typical of the era in which it was made. I did notice that it has some plot devices which re-appear in later 20th Century-Fox films (some of which also featured Alice Faye): The low-class man aspiring to high society and "a dame with class" repeated in "Hello Frisco Hello" and "Nob Hill", and Faye's getting passed up for another woman, then going off to London to be a big success on the stage there. Never let it be said that Darryl Zanuck didn't get mileage out of his story lines.

Here we see Faye early in her career as a Jean Harlow knock-off, with platinum blonde hair and pencil-thin eyebrows. Not too long after this film, her appearance was normalized and she began singing in a lower key which made her voice so much richer. I think she was responsible for a whole new trend for female singers. Gone was the high-pitched, nasal sound, popular in the 1920s and early 30s.

For fans of tap dancing, you can watch Dixie Dunbar, whose career never amounted to much, and also there is a nice performance by juvenile Gareth Joplin, on a level equal to that of any adult performer, but who evidently did not have much of a film career either.

Kerry Bolton (Baxter) decides to take his vaudeville revue to Broadway and succeeds with one hit show after another. Helping him along are blonde singer Pat Doran (Alice Faye) who helps arrange the musical numbers and Joe Cooney (Jack Oakie) who ... well I could never figure out how he was being helpful - to Bolton or the plot. Oakie is used to much better comic effect in later Fox films such as "Tin Pan Alley".

Somewhat formulaicly, Bolton overlooks the adoring girl right under his nose (Pat) and falls for a society woman, Mrs. Rosalind Cleve, who is flat broke. She plays hard to get, mainly because she thinks Bolton is vulgar, but she eventually lets him catch her because his money helps her overlook what she considers his rougher points. Pretty soon she's changing Bolton both personally and professionally. She convinces him his shows are low-brow and persuades him to alter his style. The new shows may have class but what they lack are paying customers. Meanwhile, a heartbroken Pat has left for England to try and forget Bolton when she gets the news that Pat's career, money, and of course his fair weather wife are gone. How will all of this work out with Bolton's exuberance and self-confidence crushed by his recent bad judgment in both women and his work? Watch and find out.

There are really some catchy songs and good numbers in this one, and with Alice Faye singing how can you really go wrong? There's also some fine tap dancing with Fats Waller on piano as an elevator operator who finally gets his big break. There are also some numbers that are reminiscent of Busby Berkeley's work over at Warner Brothers about this time. Gregory Ratoff has a very small but quite funny role as a Depression era forgotten man posing as a millionaire. You'll see the plot coming at you from a mile away, but the point is musical escapism, and at that it succeeds quite well.

People forget that "King of Burlesque" was made BEFORE those other movies that used the same plot which other reviewers have referred to. So what was becoming "run of the mill" by 1938 or 1943 was still reasonably "original" in 1935/1936. Also, the plot isn't as hokey (for me at least) when it's a musical COMEDY rather than musical DRAMA/MELODRAMA as it was in those later movies. Hey, it's not to be taken too seriously ... and I still enjoyed watching Mona Barrie "giving it to" that upstart social climber Warner Baxter.

Actually, I searched for this movie because I vaguely remembered seeing Fats Waller in it when it was shown on TV decades ago. So I was surprised how much I enjoyed Dixie Dunbar's tap dancing routine when I finally got to see it.