La signora della quinta strada

Alice Faye's movie career was just getting into high gear when she did this gem in 1937. The Irving Berlin score is among the best he ever wrote for the screen and Alice does well with Let's Go Slumming on Park Avenue and This Year's Kisses. The former is somewhat autobiographical for her as Alice Faye was brought up in Hell's Kitchen and she sings it against a Hell's Kitchen background.

In her early career at 20th Century Fox, Darryl Zanuck had a problem with finding someone who could sing opposite her. The only one available on the lot was Don Ameche. Zanuck's number one leading man, Tyrone Power, was non-musical. So Zanuck had to reach out to his former employer, Jack Warner, to borrow Dick Powell to play opposite Faye. Ironically Powell got the hit song out of this film with I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm.

The rest of the cast is top rate. Madeline Carroll plays a typical 1930s débutante and it's the antics of her family and actor-writer Dick Powell's satire of same that form the basis of the story. My two personal favorites of the supporting cast are George Barbier who always hits the right note as Madeline's perennially choleric father and Billy Gilbert who has a great bit as a diner owner.

Wonderful film, great entertainment.

There are so many things to recommend this delightful film. The cast is top notch (Alice Faye is outstanding in her numbers and she brings real pathos to her role as the ignored but adoring admirer of Dick Powell), the story silly and witty in that charming mid 1930s screwball comedy style and the score by Irving Berlin is one of his very best. There isn't one dud song here and all were written to order for the film - astonishing facility.

However, I really rate this musical because of the way the numbers are filmed. One actually feels like one has been to the theatre to see a show and the staging is often remarkably elaborate.

For example, "The Girl on the Police Gazette" makes use of an amazing continuous revolving set (the soundstage must have been huge to accommodate this) and appears to have been filmed in almost a continuous take. Think of the rehearsal that must have taken!

The other reason to see it is the Ritz Brothers. I know that these zany comedians are an acquired taste and are often grating and irritating for modern audiences, but this is possibly their best vehicle and the closest we can get to seeing what they were really like in the theatre. Often referred to as a poor second rate alternative to the Marx Brothers, they were quite different in style and were really fabulous comedy dancers. The movies did them no favours at all in grounding their routines, forcing them to fit in with the plots of the films in which they appeared (consider their contributions to The Goldwyn Follies in 1938.....YUK!)

Here, however, they are purely a speciality and their musical contributions are terrific. The parody they do on "Let's Go Slumming" with Harry Ritz in drag, dressed in the identical outfit worn by Alice Faye only moments before, is just priceless.

I wish the print were in better shape but Fox has done the best it could with the surviving elements for the DVD release. Perhaps a Blu ray might improve definition further?

I also miss the trailer which appears to be lost. However I have an acetate of the very entertaining radio promotional trailer (12 minutes long), should the folks at Fox wish to include it on any future release.

Recommended viewing!

Alice Faye's singing is a real plus for this movie and Dick Powell sounds pretty good as well. The story is pretty terrible and predictable, but there are lots of good character actors along to help save the day. The dancing is great throughout, really well done. But it's really the Ritz Brothers I wanted to comment on. Is it only me or are they really not that funny? They are great dancers but the skits they performed were for the most part too slap stick for me to find amusing. Overall this movie is well worth seeing and hearing - the singing and dancing is great.

Glowingly photographed in B&W by Lucien Andriot on Zanuck's Twentieth Century Fox's lot, the blonde English beauty Madeline Carroll --best remembered for being handcuffed to Robert Donat in "The 39 Steps"-- never looked more enchanting. The film features some of Irving Berlin's best romantic ballads, foremost of which is the almost forgotten "You're Laughing At Me," which Ella Fitzgerald later revived in her classic 1958 album of The Irving Berlin Song Book. The great character comic Sig Ruman ("To Be or Not to Be") shows up as an over-weight trainer in gym clothes, and for the grand finale even gets to sing part of "Slumming on Park Avenue" in a German accent. Vastly entertaining plot if vastly silly. But who cares?

ON THE AVENUE (20th Century-Fox, 1937), directed by Roy Del Ruth, is a lively musical film capitalizing on the current trend of screwball comedies that never seems to go out of style: spoofing high society. For instance, art imitating life with a theatrical company poking fun of a rich family with a well-to-do family recognizing themselves as the subject matter, and taking action.

Gary Blake (Dick Powell), star of the latest musical show, "On the Avenue," has written a play about "The Richest Girl in Town," starring himself as the rich father with Mona Merrick (Alice Faye) in the title role. Mimi Carraway (Madeleine Carroll), the richest girl in town, along with her father, the Commodore (George Barbier), Aunt Fritz (Cora Witherspoon) and fiancé, Frederick Sims (Alan Mowbray), an Arctic explorer, attend the opening and immediately recognize themselves as the topic of society fun. At the conclusion of the play, Mimi storms over to Blake's dressing room where she greets him with anger and a slap on the face. Because she refuses to listen to reason, Blake hasher forcibly ejected from the theater for not being a "good sport." Thinking back of what was said, Mimi agrees on becoming a "good sport" by inviting Gary for a night on of town, posing as Mr. and Mrs.Hossenpfeiffer, to discuss matters and have fun at the same time. Returning home at dawn, Gary and Mimi, who have fallen in love, come to a compromise. Mimi agrees to let Gary carry on with his show as written while Gary goes one step further by tastefully changing the material so it won't be offensive. Jealous over Gary's infatuation towards Mimi, Mona takes it upon herself on sketching the musical play to be even worse than before. Mimi and family attend to witness the shock of their lives with the play's revision. Believing Gary is at fault, Mimi gets even by buying the rights to the show and hiring patrons to walkout during Gary's performance and using the Ritz Brothers to make him look ridiculous for every newspaper critic in town to see. Once Gary discovers what Mimi has done, it becomes his turn to have the last laugh.

With music and lyrics composed by the legendary Irving Berlin, the motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "He Ain't Got Rhythm" (sung by Alice Faye, and The Ritz Brothers); "The Girl On the Police Gazette"(sung by Dick Powell in 1890s attire, bowler and mustache); "You're Laughing at Me" (sung by Powell to Madeleine Carroll); "This Year's Kisses" (sung by Faye); "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (sung by Powell and Faye); "Slumming on Park Avenue" (Sung by Alice Faye and The Ritz Brothers); "You're Laughing at Me" (Powell); "Ochye Tchonia"(Russian Folk Song sung and performed by The Ritz Brothers); "This Year's Kisses'" (sung by Alice Faye); and "Slumming in Park Avenue"(sung by cast).

In spite the fact that the Berlin songs, as good as they are, never became as legendary as "Blue Skies" or "White Christmas," he did acquire fine singers to promote his distinguished tunes: Dick Powell, on loan out from Warner Brothers, having the film's best song, "You're Laughing at Me," while Alice Faye, in a secondary role, contributes some of her best vocals, namely "This Year's Kisses." In between songs,the Ritz Brothers collaborate their version of bizarre comedy, ranging from facial expressions, crossed-eyes, and dressing in drag. Others in the cast include: Joan Davis (Miss Katz, a secretary); Douglas Fowley(Eddie Eads); Stepin Fetchit as "Step," billed as Herman; Sig Rumann(Herr Hanestange); Billy Gilbert (Joe Papaloupas, the lunch wagon proprietor); Walter Catlett (Jake Dibble); and E.E. Clive (Ben, the Central Park Horse Cabby), Dewey Robinson (Lunch Wagon Patron), among others.

The sequence where Powell (in tuxedo and top hat) and Carroll (in glittering white evening gown) are strolling through Central Park, in medium camera range the couple resemble that of current song and dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In fact, watching Powell and Carroll together in this scene alone, anyone would expect them to go into their dance to "You're Laughing at Me," which doesn't happen. With Seymour Felix credited as choreographer, much of the dancing takes place on stage.

Regardless of listenable tunes, agreeable cast and above-average story, ON THE AVENUE is a forgotten item from the 1930s. Its 1994 video cassette distribution consisted of an added bonus with a surviving comedy outtake featuring Alice Faye and the Ritz Brothers. Seldom revived these days, ON THE AVENUE was formerly presented on American Movie Classics cable channel in 1996 as part of its tribute to the movie musical during the station's annual film preservation festival. ON THE AVENUE is old-fashioned entertainment that should still please its viewers whenever aired on the Fox Movie Channel. (***1/2)