Fantôme Radiophonique

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.

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.

Usually Jack Haley was placed as second leads or comic reliefs in lousy movies, and while Wake Up and Live isn't a classic, he is given the inarguable lead and almost every song to sing. This mistaken identity comedy is set amidst a faux rivalry between bandleader Ben Barnes and reporter Walter Winchell, who play themselves! While they try to insult and one-up each other, Jack Haley tries to make it as a singer, only he panics whenever he sees a microphone. Alice Faye, a singer, tries to help him get over his "mic fright" but turning the microphone without his knowledge. His voice floods into an entire radio station, and everyone loves him! The only trouble is no one knows who the "Phantom Troubadour" is and Jack doesn't know he's famous.

It's a pretty cute setup, and Jack Haley is given the cute and catchy songs "Never in a Million Years" and "It's Swell of You" to show off his voice. Alice is given one song, and Ben and Walter are given plenty of good-natured banter. Among the supporting players, you'll find Patsy Kelly, Ned Sparks, Miles Mander, and a couple of jaw-dropping numbers by the Condos Brothers. If you liked Pigskin Parade, with Jack and Patsy, you'll probably like this one.

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.

Cute 20th Century Fox film, very typical for them in the '30s, starring Alice Faye, Jack Haley, Ned Sparks, Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie, and Patsy Kelly.

Eddie Kane and Jean Roberts (Haley and Grace Bradley) are vaudevillians who come to New York to make it. Eddie's sister (Kelly) works for Walter Winchell. They are mentioned in Winchell's column and receive offers; sadly, Eddie can't sing in front of a live mike. Jean gets another job and Eddie works as a tour guide at the station.

In an effort to overcome his fear, he seeks out the star of the "Wake Up and Live" radio show, Alice Huntley (Faye) to help him.

One day, while working, Eddie comes across a microphone. Thinking it's dead, he sings "Never in a Million Years," which Ben Bernie's band is playing. He's heard over the mike, and everyone wants to know who he is. Even Eddie doesn't know! He's called "The Phantom Troubador" and there is a frenzied rush to find him.

Winchell has a feud going with orchestra leader Ben Bernie (kind of like the Jimmy Kimmel-Matt Damon feud) so they're in a race to reveal his identity first. Alice realizes who Eddie is, and has him "practicing" in her apartment at an exact time in front of a supposedly dead mike - it's live and feeding into the supper club where Bernie is playing.

Haley is dubbed by Buddy Clark, and both he and Faye sing like a dream. The songs, including "Wake Up and Live," "Swell of You," "Ooh, but I'm Happy," and "There's a Lull in My Life" are wonderful.

An uplifting film, enlivened by the performances and the singing.