Customer Reviews

On the Avenue

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fox's musicals haven't weathered so well as have the products of MGM and Warner Brothers: their performers were so singular that they've been forgotten over the years or are treated (as in the case of Carmen Miranda) largely as kitsch. But ON THE AVENUE shows beautifully what Fox could do exceptionally well in the musical format when they had all the right elements together--in this case, a superb Irving Berlin score.

The queen of Fox musicals was Alice Faye, an extremely distinctive performer with a gorgeously lush contralto voice much like Karen Carpenter's. With her heavy eyelids and great open smile she always looked like she was smiling through tears, and no one was better at singing a rueful ballad, like this film's famous "This Year's Kisses," one of Berlin's rare sad numbers. Faye's part in this is a bit underwritten, and though Dick Powell is the male lead (at this point moving away from the juvenile twerp he played in Warners musicals to an authentic and convincing leading actor he would become in films noir--and here in superb voice), he must contend with the beautiful but forever irritating Madeleine Carroll as his aristocratic love interest. The film is redeemed, though, by the Ritz Brothers, another great Fox musical staple. All but forgotten today, the Ritzes were a kind of cross between the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges, and they could also sing well and dance even better. Their manic energies are not to everyone's tastes, but to many people (myself included) they're hilarious, and the surprisingly virile Harry Ritz is hysterical in his parody of Faye during the "Let's Go Slumming" number.

One the Avenue is a fun musical comedy with an excellent cast. Gary Blake (Dick Powell) writes and performs in a show that spoofs a well-known family; the family gets upset and plans to sue though they have no grounds on which to do so. The young woman of the household (Madeleine Carroll) takes the writer out to sway his opinion and the two fall for each other. Blake plans to retract the harsher parts of the skit, but his jealous co-star (Alice Faye) turns it into an even worse commentary.

Powell is excellent here, more mature than in his juvenile roles in the Busby Berkeley musicals, more confident and very attractive. He has lots of chemistry with the beautiful Carroll. Faye adds to the film with her gorgeous creamy voice and fun dancing. The Ritz Brothers provide a brash, obnoxious humor to the screen, but they fit their roles well. Stepin Fetchit also makes an appearance as a dim-witted stagehand.

The story is very well done and the romantic relationship is appropriately fleshed out. The musical numbers are highly enjoyable and truly supplement an already great film.

Nothing heavy, this is a very enjoyable 1930s musical. The highlites are the musical numbers, since the songs are by Irving Berlin. While "I've got my love to keep me warm" is the best known, my favorite is Alice Faye's rendition of "This year's kisses," and the Ritz Brothers have some very funny routines. Highly recommended.

I always felt that 20th Century Fox put out the best story/music combination in the mid 1930s to early 1940s. There is a light hearted bounciness to the songs and these Fox musicals are, for me, much preferred to the overdone, sluggish MGM musicals. WB was great too but had that harsh urban twist to them which is by no means a knock to that studio. I love them. The 20th musicals, with Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Jack Haley, Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, John Payne, Jack Oakie, display in these performers, an infectious light-hearted quality. Too bad Dick Powell couldn't have been part of this group after 1935; he would have fit right in with his high likeability factor. Both of Dick Powell's loan outs to Fox, "On the Avenue," along with the forgotten but terrific "Thanks a Million," from 1935, are 2 of his very best films from this era. I hope this latter title comes to dvd as well.

"On the Avenue", released early in 1937, was at the the time the most ambitious musical comedy which the fledgling 20th Century Fox had produced. Borrowing very popular Dick Powell from Warner Brothers, employing prestigious Irving Berlin to write the score and showcasing their own special Alice Faye, the film was a box office smash.

The pluses are obvious - a funny almost screwball screenplay, an excellent supporting cast including Walter Catlett as a harried producer, Cora Witherspoon as an excentric aunt and the Ritz Brothers, the unsubtle trio who existed somewhere between the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges, well contained and entertaining instead of irritating. Madelaine Carroll is perfectly cast as the richest girl in the world. Both Faye and Powell are in great voice. It is worth the film just to see Faye trucking to "Slumming on Park Avenue", Harry Ritz doing a parody of Faye in that number and Faye singing in her creamy contralto "This Year's Kisses" in mesmerising closeup. The film has a rollicking jolly mood which is infectious.

The film was made not long after Faye was regroomed by Darryl Zanuck from an imitation Jean Harlow into a smooth performer with her own warm personality. Reviewers of the time suggested she stole the film, particularly as so many preferred warm and lush Faye to charming but cool Carroll.

The DVD has been beautifully packaged. The print has been restored and is in excellent shape. There is a bright, colourful insert with some good information about the film's production, a deleted scene of the Ritz Brothers which borders on bad taste and some production stills and advertising.

Best of all, there is the first part of a documentary on Alice Faye in which her charming daughters appear. The documentary traces Faye's life until her retirement from films but you will have to purchase another Faye title to get the rest of it. Mile Kreuger provides an outstanding commentary too. Kreuger has really excellent delivery with superb diction and he is a pleasure to listen to. He also has the ability to balance the information provided nicely. He is never tedious.

This is a very good package of an excellent vintage musical and one of the best of Alice Faye's many hits.

A feud between Broadway and Park Avenue isn't exactly as bloodcurdling as that between the Bloods and the Crips, but it's hotly contested enough to fuel the plot of this breezy, sometimes madcap musical. ON THE AVENUE stars that swell musical leading man, Dick Powell, and he must've gotten up on the right side of the bed because he gets to sing several Irving Berlin standards and, to boot, has Madeleine Carroll and Alice Faye fighting over him. Oh, the life of a crooner in the swinging 1930s.

Let's plot it up: Broadway performer Gary Blake (Powell) stars in a musical revue which features a sketch making fun of New York's preeminent blue blood family, the Caraways. And how ego-deflating must it have been when the Caraways decided to purchase tickets to this particular show. The stunning Mimi Caraway (Madeleine Carroll) takes fierce exception to the rampant spoofing and goes on the warpath. She sets outraged eyes on Gary Blake, accuses him of being an "impudent upstart." He retaliates by labeling her a "poor sport." She slaps him. He tosses her out of the theater. This is one of those courtships in which both parties come away with bruises. The gossip columns merely add fuel to the fire.

At this stage, Alice Faye's star has yet to ascend to its zenith. Else, Powell may have ended up with the other girl, the other girl being his revue co-star, Mona Merrick (Faye). Mona silently pines for Gary, and you gotta feel for her as she sings the melancholy "This Year's Kisses" and casts wistful glances at her oblivious guy. And then it's too late for Mona. Gary's stepping up in the world, stepping out with the posh Mimi Caraway who, it turns out, hasn't let her status as the richest girl in America go to her head. We check out their "date" - in which I think Mona had intended to show Gary up - except both parties end up having a tremendous time in each other's company, with Mimi winningly letting her hair down at the shooting gallery and, later, at a greasy spoon diner. When they end up on a moonlit hansom ride at Central Park, well, talk about this year's kisses.

Still, Mona won't give up without a fight. "If he thinks I'm gonna play stooge to that human cash register, he's crazy!" she rages and then storms off to sabotage Gary and Mimi's fledgling affair. Because we require that conflict for the third act. ON THE AVENUE, out in 1937, is watchable on many fronts. There's something very self-assured about this film. The love triangle is validated by Alice Faye's sympathetic performance, with Madeleine Carroll being charming enough and down-to-earth enough that you can see why Powell's character does fall for her. The music and lyrics are by Irving Berlin, and there are several hummable classics here, with Powell and Faye serenading us with "The Girl on the Police Gazette," "He Ain't Got Rhythm," "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," "Slumming on Park Avenue," "This Year's Kisses" and "You're Laughing at Me." I can listen to Alice Faye's warm, mellow contralto all night.

The zany Ritz Brothers are here, and their unsubtle schtick may well annoy you. They're juuuust a bit over the top. Even the Three Stooges think the Ritz Brothers should tone it down a little. Still, I liked what they did in the opening "He Ain't Got Rhythm" number. The stage skit which lampoons the Caraways (and so incenses Mimi) is pretty funny, with the "revised" version later howlingly topping it. Anyway, stuffy folks like Mr. Frederick Sims, the "famous arctic explorer," are just begging to be ridiculed.

The DVD's bonus features: An informative Audio Commentary by musical historian Miles Kreuger, in which he breaks down practically every bit actor who shows up in the picture; the excellent "Alice Faye: A Life On Screen" tracks this popular musical star's life story and her rise in Hollywood (00:18:56 minutes long); a deleted scene: "The Plumbers" - featuring the Ritz Brothers (00:03:26 minutes); side-by-side restoration comparisons - which allow you to view the 2006 Film Transfer Master simultaneously with the 2006 Digitally Restored Master - of brief scenes from ON THE AVENUE, THAT NIGHT IN RIO, THE GANG'S ALL HERE and LILLIAN RUSSELL; and a stills gallery.

As a fan of Alice Faye, Madeleine Carroll, and the Ritz Brothers, an unbiassed review is impossible. All they had to do was move about, which they did. An example of real entertainment which Hollywood and TV seem to have lost sight of in the last two decades wherein bottom-line profit has apparently become the sole motivation and raison d'etre of production.

Dick Powell and Irving Berlin come off best in On the Avenue, with Alice Fay and the Ritz Brothers a close second. If that doesn't leave romance much to work with, you can imagine what it does to Madeleine Carroll, the second billed lead and Powell's love interest.

The plot is sappy and needs help. Sappy, because it's the usual boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl silliness, not bad if handled with style. Help is in order because this attempt at a screwball musical badly needs two things, a more stylishly executed story line and Carole Lombard, or at least someone who can convince us that rich and selfish is just rich and not really selfish. Think of Irene Bullock in My Man Godfrey. Madeleine Carroll is blond and a looker, and a competent actress who can handle amusing situations. Her faint but posh accent (she was British, and made a big splash in The 39 Steps) and natural reserve (it would be hard to imagine her taking a bottoms-up pratfall) make her, for me, difficult to warm up to. It wasn't long before she was back in Britain and became a great success.

Dick Powell, in my opinion, finds here a perfect balance between not looking so much the self-satisfied juvenile as in his early musicals and not the getting-too-old-for-the-part appearance of his last ones. As Gary Blake, Broadway writer and performer, he comes cross as less cocky and even more likeable. He's still quick, confident and at ease with himself, but he's reached the point where he can be just a bit puzzled by love and with jokes at his expense. It's a nice performance.

Alice Faye even in black and white looks like a scrumptious bowl of cream and peaches. She's so easy to like with that sexy, warm contralto, sleepy eyes and, of all things, a really sweet, good-natured smile. As far as The Ritz Brothers go, a little goes a long way. But I'll tell you, they were a whiz at fast. close-order comic dancing. In the opening number, "He Ain't Got Rhythm," they nearly take the movie away from Powell and Faye right then.

And while some may say that this isn't Irving Berlin's greatest score, I'll gladly settle for one of Berlin's greatest songs ("I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm") and two of his near greats ("You're Laughing at Me," "Slumming on Park Avenue"). It doesn't get much better than Dick Powell, dressed to the nines, strolling on stage, tossing his top hat, white gloves and topcoat to an aged butler, and singing...

"The snow is snowing
The wind is blowing
But I can weather the storm
What do I care how much it may storm
I've got my love to keep me warm..."

If that's the high point, the low point is Stepin Fetchit as Gary Blake's servant. It's not Lincoln Perry's fault, exactly (Fetchit was his stage name). This is what kept him in work. However, his constant portrayals of slow, half-wit, shufflin' "darkies" is, or should be, offensive to any modern audience. It's hard to blame a guy for taking work in an industry that only portrayed blacks as stupid, as brutes or as mammies. Blame the industry or the audiences? There's plenty for all.

All is mostly forgiven, however, when Powell, again in white tie and tails, and Carroll, in a stunning gown that's nothing but white gauze and glitter, are driven in the moonlight through Central Park in a horse-drawn cab, stop and dance a bit, and then Powell sings to her ...

"I love you, which is easy to see
But I have to keep guessing what you feel about me
You listen to the words that I speak
But I feel that you listen with your tongue in your cheek.

You're laughing at me
I can't be sentimental for you're laughing at me
I know I want to be romantic, but I haven't a chance
You've got a sense of humor, and humor is death to romance..."

What's the plot? I thought I mentioned. Gary Blake is a hit in his Broadway review, which, among other things, has a funny and irreverent skit about the richest family in America, the Caraways. The skit includes jibes at young Mimi Caraway (Madeleine Carroll). Mimi and her dad are in the audience. Outraged, they get up and walk out. Mimi confronts Gary backstage. Gary falls for Mimi. Mimi falls for Gary. Mona Merrick (Alice Fay), who is co-starring with Gary and likes him a lot, takes steps to bollix things up for Gary. Then she helps unbollix things. Happy endings eventually for everyone. Keep your eye out for some fine comic character actors. Among them are Alan Mowbray, Sig Ruman, Joan Davis, Walter Catlett, Billy Gilbert and Cora Witherspoon.

Stick with Dick Powell and some of those Irving Berlin songs and you'll go away smiling. If you'd like to know more about Irving Berlin and America's great songwriters, Alec Wilder's American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 is invaluable. So is The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin.

(3.5 stars)

On The Avenue is one of those Fox musicals that could have been great but was somehow inexplicably doomed to become little more than a "B" movie--and that's on a good day! Oh yes, the acting is quite good and the musical numbers are well done. In addition, the cinematography and the choreography also work well; and the plot moves along at a good pace. Unfortunately, however, that's where the plusses leave off and the minuses begin to add up. The Ritz Brothers do nothing for me. The Ritz Brothers can't even begin to compare to The Marx Brothers; and I am left wondering why the purest looking girl on the screen, Alice Faye in the role of Mona Merrick, DOESN'T get the man at the end of the picture. Worse yet, when Stepin Fetchit goes through his routine onscreen I do nothing but cringe and wince; it offends me even if his "act" was considered a funny way to portray African-Americans at that time.

When the action starts, we quickly see that a hot new Broadway show is opening--much to the chagrin of Commodore Caraway (George Barbier), his daughter Mimi (Madeleine Carroll) and their explorer friend Frederick Sims (Alan Mowbray) who is well known for his trips to the artic. The show, which stars Gary Blake (Dick Powell), has a comedy sketch spoofs the Caraway family to such an extent that there can be no misunderstanding that the joke's on them; and the Caraways and Sims leave the theater in a huff feeling angry and very embarrassed. Commodore Caraway wants to sue; but his lawyer Mr. Trivet (Douglas Wood) says they don't have enough grounds to sue. Meanwhile, we also meet Mimi's nutty Aunt Fritz (Cora Witherspoon) who can laugh much more easily at life as she drifts from a fixation on all things Russian to all things German and more.

Mimi bribes a stage door guard to let her into the theater; and she has a nasty first meeting with Gary Blake. She makes it clear that she and her family are furious. Somehow (and this is not well done), Gary and Mimi make amends and spend the night on the town pretending they don't know each other. That way they can get a fresh start and maybe romance will bloom. Mimi eventually gets Gary's promise that the sketch in the show about them will be changed for the better.

Of course, there are complications. Romance between Gary and Mimi doesn't sit well with Mona Merrick (Alice Faye), who works as Gary's sidekick in the show. Despite the fact that Mona is clearly the sweet, pure and rather charming girl next door type, she is ignored by Gary who becomes ever more interested in dating Mimi.

From here the plot can go anywhere. What happens between Mimi and Gary in the long run? Will Gary and Mimi keep seeing each other after Mona makes surprise changes in the show to foul up Gary's plans to please Mimi and her family? Will the Caraways sue the manager J.J. 'Jake' Dibble (Walter Catlett)? What might happen if Mimi tries to take over the show? No plot spoilers here, folks--watch and find out!

The DVD comes with a few extra features; I especially liked the featurette on Alice Faye.

On The Avenue has several plusses in its favor; but the minuses drag it down and leave it behind the better musicals from the golden age of Hollywood. I recommend this for fans of the actors in this movie; but in general please make sure you're going to be comfortable with the minuses or else, like me, you'll be somewhat disappointed.