Lillian Russell

Darryl Zanuck had high hopes for Lillian Russell, biographical picture of the turn of the last century stage star who was an American icon in the gaslight era. Even to hiring Irving Cummings as director. Cummings was a former stage actor who knew the great Ms. Russell back in her day. Alice Faye says he was of enormous help in capturing her character.

Unfortunately the film is not helped by a ponderous script that loses the character of Lillian Russell by trying to cram too much in. Though the main men in her life are dealt with, a lot of facts were taken liberty with including a couple of husbands that were dropped.

In her time Lillian was the most admired woman in America. She was a hefty woman in an era when that was the taste. Talk about full figured gal, take a look at a picture of Lillian if you can find one on the web. Jane Russell had absolutely nothing on her, in fact that is the only department where Alice Faye is deficient in her role.

Of course when Alice Faye sings that's when the film is really something to watch. Starting with In Old Chicago, Darryl Zanuck had the inspiration of casting her in these period costume dramas whereas previously Alice had been Fox's answer to MGM's Jean Harlow. These became her best work and most loved by her legion of fans.

Some new songs were brought in with some old standards. Alice's best moment is singing After The Ball twice during the film, a song very much identified with Lillian Russell. She also sings Come Down Ma' Evening Star which was the only song that Lillian Russell made an early gramophone recording of.

Henry Fonda hated the film. Hated it because he was lost in a whole crowd of male admirers of Faye that also included Don Ameche, Warren William, Leo Carrillo, Nigel Bruce. Fonda and Ameche played two of her husbands that didn't get left out of the script. Warren William was millionaire/gambler Jesse Lewisohn, Leo Carrillo was the fabled 19th century theatrical impresario Tony Pastor where Russell got her start, Nigel Bruce was W.S. Gilbert with whom Russell had a most unsatisfactory relationship when she went to star in one of the Gilbert&Sullivan operettas. And Edward Arnold who was born to play the role of Diamond Jim Brady and who had made it his own in a biographical film a few years ago, does the role again. I do believe Zanuck would not have done the film if he couldn't have gotten him.

Fonda in his memoirs felt he would get really top drawer parts after The Grapes of Wrath which he signed a studio contract with 20th Century Fox to get. Lillian Russell was not his idea of an upwardly mobile direction for his career. Though he did say he had nothing but good memories of working with Alice Faye.

Besides Russell and her men the film has Eddie Foy, Jr. once again playing his famous father and you have a once in a lifetime chance to see Weber&Fields probably the greatest vaudeville comics of their time doing one of their routines. If Lillian Russell has no other value, it's great that their art was captured on film for future generations.

So while the story leaves a lot to be desired, Lillian Russell is a great tribute to a star and her era as portrayed by another great star of another era, Alice Faye.

... this time with music, from 20th Century Fox and director irving Cummings. Helen Leonard (Alice Faye) hopes for a career in the opera, but is told her voice isn't good enough. However, since she's so stunningly beautiful, she should still get musical training for the traditional theater, because that's how that works. Theatrical producer Tony Pastor (Leo Carrillo) discovers her and, changing her name to Lillian Russell, he makes her a stage star. Her talent wins her fans the world over, as well as the admiration of many powerful men, such as Diamond Jim Brady (Edward Arnold) and songwriter Edward Solomon (Don Ameche), but her heart truly belongs to hometown reporter Alexander (Henry Fonda).

People spend a lot of time in this movie telling Alice Faye as Lillian Russell how beautiful she is. A lot of time, repeatedly warning her that her beauty is so magnificent that her life will be difficult because of it. Faye is told how gorgeous she is so many times that it starts to seem like a self-esteem exercise rather than a narrative. And I don't find Faye that pretty, to be honest, so it makes the repetition that much more noticeable. Ameche plays a grouch, and Fonda has to do his wide-eyed sincerity good-guy shtick, while Arnold hams it up repeating a role he had played in an earlier film, and Warren William is completely wasted. Fonda was said to have regretted this movie the most of any he did under contract to Fox.

The musical aspects are also lackluster, with no major musical numbers, just pieces of songs here and there, and a couple of minor full performances. Like many of these biopics, it's also an excuse for some nostalgia wallowing, this time with Eddie Foy Jr. Playing his father doing an old stage bit, and vaudeville comedy duo dinosaurs Weber & Fields doing some hoary bits. The movie earned one Oscar nomination, for Best Art Direction (Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright).

I don't know how much this fictionalized bio of Lillian Russell owes to the truth, but the truth is she led an awfully dull life to judge by the weak script developments. Yes, even for a gal who mingled with Diamond Jim Brady and married a well-known composer, she's awfully dull stuff to take, which is why so much footage was cut out of the final print.

Needless to say, when ALICE FAYE, costumed effectively in all those turn-of-the-century clothes and singing old-time songs in that breathy low-pitched voice of hers, gets to strut her stuff the story warms up a bit. But most of it is just so dull you want to fast forward and skip the bio completely.

No help is HENRY FONDA as a newspaper man who patiently waits his turn to have his fling with romancing the musical comedy star. And even the reliable DON AMECHE is at sea here. Not their fault. The script is the problem and it shows until the bitter end. EDWARD ARNOLD, in a comfortable role as Diamond Jim Brady, is the only bright spot in the supporting cast. HELEN WESTLEY, WARREN WILLIAM, LEO CARRILLO and NIGEL BRUCE are likewise not seen to advantage.

Maybe Technicolor would have brightened things. Hard to say, but I still think a livelier story and better backstage plot would have helped considerably. As it is, only ALICE FAYE's loyal fans will warm up to this one.

The actors were brilliant in trying to portray such a complex person in such a complex time. The costumes were beautiful.

You do not have to use any imagination to try to figure out the characters and the way they dressed and the way they spoke.

Thank you for doing such a wonderful job. This movie is a true treasure. We are surely blessed with such wonderful artists.

These are truly gifted actors portraying a special time in our history.

The theatre was such a huge part of the American culture. It was the only form of entertainment.

It must of been very magical to witness a play by candle light.

Some historical films are totally worthless as guides to the lives and careers of the people they discuss. PARNELL, for instance, is a dismal film about the great Irish nationalist leader. LILLIAN RUSSELL is not a good guide to the career of the the famed singer and entertainer of the 1890s. There are omissions and polite bowdlerizing. For example, her marriage to Edward Solomon the composer(played by Don Ameche) was not ended by his dropping dead from overwork. Effective movie moment that it is, the marriage ended when Lillian discovered her husband was a bigamist with a living first wife. The relationship with Gilbert and Sullivan was not ended on such a sad but friendly note. Lillian did appear in PATIENCE, but she never played IOLANTHE (Gilbert claimed she did not want to rehearse as much as he insisted his performers do; rumor said that Gilbert tried to get Lillian onto the "casting couch" at the Savoy but she said no). Also, it is highly unlikely that Sullivan would have agreed to Lillian singing another composer's song in his operetta (even if between acts).

Henry Fonda's Alexander Moore is a bland enough character - handsome and kindly in the film, but not as colorful as rivals Ameche, Edward Arnold ("Diamond Jim" Brady) and Warren Williams (Jesse Lewisohn). In real life he was an important newspaperman in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, and (less acceptable in hindsight) a close friend of Warren Harding and Harry Daugherty's "Ohio Gang" of political spoils-men. Lillian, by the way, died in 1922, in the middle of Harding's corrupt administration.

The best things in the film are Faye, as pretty as usual in 19th Century costume, and warbling songs like "Blue Love Bird" in her best voice. That is worth watching. Then there is the color of the theater in the mauve decade. Tony Pastor's, the Savoy Operas, the stage of 19th Century Broadway (back then down near 14th Street and Union Square). My favorite moment: Joe Weber and Lou Fields in costume as their "Dutch" characters of the 1890s, demolishing a game of "Casino". It is a priceless moment of theatrical magic, that briefly tells us more about the real 1890s than the fake movie script for this film. Watch it for Joe and Lou and Alice.