La grande strada bianca

For viewers who like Irving Berlin music, this is a film to watch. His songs are really the main attraction. But the story, which encompasses a group of musicians and their career changes, has an interesting series of romantic plot twists that is intriguing.

The main character is Roger (Tyrone Power), a man who starts his career in a highbrow musical setting, but changes to more popular ragtime. The story is fictional, but Roger's character arc is inspired by the life of Irving Berlin.

A big-budget film that was in production for almost two years, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" received a huge promotional build-up in 1938. And it was well received by audiences. Sets are lavish. B&W cinematography is competent. Casting and acting are acceptable overall. However, Tyrone Power is the only major actor who lacks musical talent, and it shows. Both Don Ameche and Jack Haley add luster. Alice Faye is adequate.

The film is less constricted by plot than other musicals. But there's still a lot of dialogue. And, except for the title song and a quick version of "Easter Parade", the music is somewhat bland and uninteresting. I would have preferred more evocative music. The film's tone ranges from semi-bawdy to mushy romanticism.

This is a large-scale, Americana period piece film, with an accent on the music of Irving Berlin. It is old fashioned, both in plot and in style. It's technically well made. But to me it's too removed in time from current culture to be anything other than historically quaint.

The plot is really nothing more than boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, but it's enough of a framework to present an almost non-stop catalogue of great Irving Berlin songs. The music itself is all that is needed to make this a grand entertainment; the litany of classic Berlin standards includes the title song, "Now It Can Be Told", "Everybody's Doing It Now", "Easter Parade" and many others, performed by Twentieth-Century Fox's stock musical players Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche, as well as Jack Haley (who does a great comic rendition of "Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning") and a young, vibrant Ethel Merman, singing, amongst others, "Blue Skies" and "My Walking Stick". All in all, a wonderful "escape" film.

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" has always been a personal favorite of mine and an excellent example of the kind of lively and jubilant musicals Fox specialized during the golden age. It was a huge hit in its day and remains a huge improvement over the monotonous "In Old Chicago"(1937). I saw "Alexander's Ragtime Band" again last night and it may well be my favorite Fox musical, though I have dozens of other favorites. Directed by the underrated Henry King with a rich and endlessly tuneful score, the film is a fictionalized account on the early days of jazz, and contains close to 30 Irving Berlin songs. Alice Faye never looked so ineffably beautiful, Tyrone Power never more charismatic, Don Ameche never more genial. It's all about the music and the stars. A great timeless classic that becomes more entrancing and enriching with each viewing.

Alexander's Ragtime Band is a combination musical/drama with Alice Faye belting out Irving Berlin songs and making eyes at her leading man, Tyrone Power. Young Power is far more beautiful than his leading lady and is good as the wealthy classic musician turned band leader who shapes a cheap Faye into a classy performer. Worthwhile to see because of the song Faye sings "to" Power and the kiss they share afterward.

Otherwise, the movie is melodramatic with its storyline stretching over many years, rivalry, and World War I. But what else do you expect from a musical? A classic worthy to be seen.

20th Century Fox's 1938 Alexander'S RAGTIME BAND, Number 22 in their "Studio Classics" series, is with the exception of there 1927 SUNRISE (which was offered only as a promotional item), the earliest title to be offered and it turns out to be quite delightful!

Like many musicals of the time the story is slight and mainly used to advance the musical portions, but this one boasts a large collection from the pen of one of the best -- IRVING BERLIN!

Fox had wanted to do a biography on Irving Berlin -- instead Berlin worked out the story idea of a fictional bandleader ushering in a whole new era of swing music. Berlin worked with Fox during the two year period that was needed to prepare this lavish musical -- and the results are very entertaining as it presents 28 of his most famous songs. Alfred Newman's handling of the music won him a well deserved Oscar.

The cast, which includes Tyrone Power, the delightful Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Jack Haley (the Tin Woodman in "The Wizard of Oz") and a young and very attractive looking Ethel Merman, soars under the hand of veteran director, Henry King. There really isn't a "false note" in acting department.

Over all the picture rendered on the DVD is quite beautiful (though there are a few side scratches from time to time). The icing on this DVD is found in some marvelous "Extras": First of all there is a very fine A&E Biography, "Alice Faye: The Star Next Door", that gives a wonderful account of this once very popular star. There are dozens of nice clips from her film work at Fox (that make you wish that Fox would put out an Alice Faye Collection of six or so of her films in a package like Universal did with Deanna Durbin). After watching this biography I felt like Miss Faye must have been a very nice person as well as a talented singer and actress.

The big surprise is found in the Commentary Track provided by Film Score Restorationist RAY FIOLA. I had the opportunity to meet this gentleman at a Film Score presentation at Brigham Young University. BYU holds the Max Steiner Collection, which includes a large number of phonograph recordings of sound track music that were used for playback as the scores as they were recorded on the sound stages. BYU has issued a series of sound track CD's made from their holdings. Fiola is one of the world experts on preparing these 78rpm records for transferring to CD's. His commentary on this DVD provides a wealth of information about Berlin, his songs and the actors and other behind-the-scenes people who brought ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND to life. He's more informative then a university film class -- and very interesting. This is one of the best of the Fox commentary tracks. Fiola even gives you information on ordering a CD of the ALEXANDER tracks that he worked on.

There is even more: How about three deleted scenes -- which means three deleted songs (and they are all very nice to see and hear). Also included are shots of Irving Berlin being interviewed at the London premiere of the film in newsreel footage.

All in all, this is a very nice addition to the Fox "Studio Classics" series -- one that is well worth adding to anyones collection who is interested in the history of the movies -- especially the history of film musicals.