Among the reasons to see this film: Dick Powell and Alice Faye singing Irving Berlin's classic "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," one of the Ritz Brothers singing in drag, and Cora Witherspoon as Aunt Fritz swinging from a trapeze and gliding around the living room to "Skaters Waltz" and song lyrics that rhyme "Jupiter" with "stupider." The production numbers belong to the show within the show, and Powell, Faye, and the Ritz Brothers (who prove to be remarkably good dancers) doing "Slumming on Park Avenue" is the show stopper. Harry Ritz's version of "Ochi Chyornye" is pretty funny as well. What spoils this movie for me is the intermittent appearance of Stepin Fetchit, whose portrayal of idiocy exposes the racist social norms of the times. While Fetchit enjoyed a prolific film career, his portrayals of black people as stereotypically stupid remain controversial to this day.
Review of On the Avenue
