On the Avenue (1937)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent but underrated film

Don't Believe the Hype

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Ignore the sappy plot but enjoy the musical productions especially Faye and the Ritz Brothers (who dance bare feet in one of them!). Faye's character stands out and her voice is beautiful. Apparently Irving Berlin preferred her above anyone else to introduce his songs. (viewed 10/16)

'On the Avenue' had quite a cast, and who can go wrong with Irving Berlin. The good news is that 'On the Avenue' does not disappoint, and even exceeds eager expectations.Debits are hardly any and also minor, all subjective personal opinion and not to be taken objectively. The pace does slacken ever so slightly in the middle, which is noticeable when the pacing for the rest of the film is so jaunty and exuberant. Also had mixed feelings on the Ritz Brothers, though admittedly this is one of their better film outings.They don't disappoint in the dancing, which they are remarkably nimble at, and do have some entertaining sequences, with the slumming number being especially priceless. Their comedy is an acquired taste, to many people and to me, and while some parts work others are overdone, gimmicky and bizarre so it comes over as irritating.Flaws aside, 'On the Avenue' works absolutely terrifically as entertainment and as a film on the whole. It looks wonderful, with sumptuous set and costume design and exquisitely and cleverly shot. Irving Berlin's score and songs are an all-round winner, as well as vibrantly staged. Not a weak link in the bunch. "You're Laughing At Me" and "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" are particularly noteworthy, while "This Year's Kisses" has the benefits of being beautifully sung and providing a lot of emotion.Roy Del Ruth directs adeptly, and his reputation from getting great performances from his casts is evident. 'On the Avenue' has a lot to say about love's nature and its passion, and tells its story (which is more eventful and less corny and clichéd than most) with an impeccably bright tone and with effortless verve, incisiveness and wit. Both in the musical numbers and in the comedy and the drama, making for a script with a good balance of the funny and the heart-warming.Madeleine Carroll and Dick Powell are both stunning, as is an affecting Alice Faye in one of her better and underrated performances (though all her performances seen of her have never been less than very good). Billy Gilbert and George Barbier are particularly zany support, Cora Witherspoon is a lot of fun and Alan Mowbery is dashing. Was really expecting Stepin Fetchit to strike a false note, expecting him to be a stereotypical caricature and out of place, didn't mind him here.All in all, terrific film and highly recommended. 9/10 Bethany Cox

When the wealthiest girl in the world and her family are spoofed in a Broadway musical revue, she takes action against the producers and ends up falling in love with the leading man! How will she get him to change the show and not make the show loose its popularity? That's about all the plot line in this Irving Berlin classic that stars Dick Powell (on loan from Warner Brothers), Madeline Carroll, Alice Faye, and The Ritz Brothers. But it works, and hysterically so! I must admit, I've never been much of a Madeline Carroll fan; I found her to be rather wooden, but here, she has lightened up considerably. Dick Powell, always paired with Ruby Keeler in those Warners musicals (except when someone like Gloria Stuart or real-life wife Joan Blondell stepped in), came over to Fox for this two years after doing a delightful political musical spoof called "Thanks a Million". He was a fine singer, and unlike MGM's Nelson Eddy, was full of charm. Fox didn't yet have Tony Martin (who later married Alice Faye) doing leads, so it needed a star, and at the time, Dick Powell was on the list of top 10 moneymakers.Alice Faye, switching between leads and supporting parts at the time (and on the verge of being the studio's top female adult star), plays a more scheming character than normal. When Powell decides he no longer wants to cruely spoof Carroll and papa George Barbier, Faye adds her own schtick into the revue material. Having entered in the first scene of the revue with a pack of huge dogs trailing behind her, she takes out the dogs at his request, but refuses to let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. What she does I will not print here, but it is hysterical. The only one of the eccentric family who enjoys the review is wacky aunt Cora Witherspoon, obsessed with Russian culture. She in fact is up there with Carol Channing who enjoyed "Forbidden Broadway" by recording "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" on one of that Off Broadway revue's CD's. The others should have just went along with it and said, "The only bad publicity is no publicity".As for the Ritz Brothers, people can either take em' or leave em', and here, I sort of do both. They are like children who have one sort of gimmick to get attention and do it non-stop to the extent of annoyance. They do fine when spoofing Alice Faye's "Let's Go Slumming" by one of them appearing as her in drag. Fortunately, they aren't in the film all that much. Irving Berlin's music is wonderful, especially the standard "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm".Sad to state, Joan Davis, who plays a secretary in the film, has very little to do. She was obviously hired by Fox for her comic talents, but it was not used here. She would have been great onstage spoofing Witherspoon. She was doing here what all starlets do, and would have much better things happen to her down the road. Still, this is a very enjoyable film, and worth a look on DVD, which has a great bio on Alice Faye attached.

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.