Starring Dick Powell, Alice Faye, Madeline Carroll, and George Barbier
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
The backstage craze set off by 42nd Street in 1933 continued throughout the 30's. Each studio attempted to outdo each other with increasingly elaborate dance numbers set to music by house songwriters. 20th Century Fox figured, if you can't beat them, join them. They brought in Powell and Del Ruth from Warners and hired no less than Irving Berlin to do the music in this clash between classes. How does the story of a rich girl who falls for a singer and playwright look today? Let's begin with the show-within-a-show and find out...
The Story: Mimi Carraway (Carroll), the richest girl in the world, is insulted by a skit in the show parodying her. She goes to the show's writer and star Gary Blake (Powell) to convince him to remove it, but he refuses. It's too popular. He eventually dumps her on the sidewalk instead.
Shocked that anyone would insult her, she asks him on a date. By the end of a long night, they've fallen in love. That doesn't sit well with his co-star and current girlfriend Mona Merrick (Faye). He re-writes the sketch to make it less offensive, but she's so upset, she plays it as even more ridiculous. That once again leads Mimi to tell him off and return to her explorer fiancee (Alan Mowbray), at least until Mona tells her the truth. It's up to Mimi's sassy Aunt Fritz (Cora Witherspoon) to make sure the right man ends up with the right woman, no matter what side of the class divide they're on.
The Song and Dance: This one is all about the music. Irving Berlin wrote one of his best film scores here, with at least one standard in "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm." Powell gets slightly more to chew on than usual in his musicals as the downtown songwriter who comes to realize the folks who live on Park Avenue aren't as silly as he thought. Great supporting cast, too. George Barbier has a lot of fun chewing the scenery as Mimi's blustery explorer father, and Witherspoon livens up the second half as eccentric Aunt Fritz, who takes acrobatic lessons from a trapeze artist (Sig Ruman) and actually thinks the sketch in question is hilarious.
Favorite Number: We open on "He Ain't Got Rhythm," as dancing scientists and the Ritz Brothers wonder how they can jazz up their social lives and their scientific discoveries. (Listen for a bit of "Cheek to Cheek" mid-way through the number.) Gary recalls a gentler time of barbershop quartets and street cars as he recalls his search for "The Girl on the Police Gazette." Mona goes "Slumming on Park Avenue" in polka-dots and tight skirts that contrast with the elegant white-clad dancers swirling around her and her colorful friends. The Ritz Brothers get their most effective moment in the film parodying this with one in drag and them falling all around the complicated sliding set.
He takes Mimi through the park, rebuking her for her icy-cold demeanor by telling her that "You're Laughing at Me." This is heard again towards the end in an almost identical number onstage that Mimi has paid actors walk out on to get revenge for the skit. Mona wishes she could get more than "This Year's Kisses" from Gary before a show. "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" starts out as a fashion parade of women in fur coats and ends with Mona and Gary bickering after Mona sabotages the "Richest Girl In America" skit.
Trivia: Remade as Let's Make Love in 1960 with Marilyn Monroe in Powell's role and Yves Montand in Carroll's.
What I Don't Like: I'm not sure what Gary saw in Mimi. She behaved like a spoiled baby through most of the film. Frankly, I agree with Gary and Mona, especially since both versions of the skit provided some of the film's funniest moments. Carroll's defrosting ice queen is more believable early-on and when she's pulling her stunt with paying the audience to walk out than when she's falling for Gary. Wish we could have seen less of the non-singing Caroll and more of the far warmer and more interesting Alice Faye, who doesn't have much to do outside her numbers and talking to Mimi in the end.
Let's discuss the Ritz Brothers. They were a popular comic trio in 20th Century Fox comedies of the late 30's and early 40's, but nowadays, their jokes tend to be more hit-and-miss with audiences. I think a lot of it has to do with their not developing any individual personalities like The Three Stooges or The Marx Brothers that would distinguish them for modern audiences. Not to mention, a lot of their humor is based on goofy puns and slapstick that hasn't dated well. They can come off as dull or dumb rather than funny.
The Big Finale: Worth checking out for the numbers alone if you're a big fan of Powell, Faye, or the big backstage musicals of the 1930's.
Home Media: Not currently on streaming, but the original Marquis Musicals and 2018 Cinema Archives DVDs are easily found and readily available.
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