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, 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.