On the Avenue (1937)

Director:

Roy Del Ruth

Writers:

Gene Markey (screenplay) and
William M. Conselman (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 February 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Broadway producer satarizes an important New York family. The family sues but their daughter falls in love with producer.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Slap | Aunt | New York City | Actor

Cast

Dick Powell	...	Gary Blake
Madeleine Carroll	...	Mimi Caraway
Alice Faye	...	Mona Merrick
Al Ritz	...	Al Ritz - a Ritz Brother (as The Ritz Brothers)
Harry Ritz	...	Harry Ritz - a Ritz Brother (as The Ritz Brothers)
Jimmy Ritz	...	Jimmy Ritz - a Ritz Brother (as The Ritz Brothers)
George Barbier	...	Commodore Caraway
Alan Mowbray	...	Frederick Sims
Cora Witherspoon	...	Aunt Fritz
Walter Catlett	...	J.J. 'Jake' Dibble
Douglas Fowley	...	Eddie Eads
Joan Davis	...	Miss Katz - Dibble's Secretary
Stepin Fetchit	...	Herman 'Step'
Sig Ruman	...	Herr Hanfstangel (as Sig Rumann)
Billy Gilbert	...	Joe Papaloupas

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2958) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Australia:PG

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Despite introducing three Irving Berlin classics ("This Year's Kisses," "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" with Dick Powell, and "Slumming on Park Avenue," followed by The Ritz Brothers in drag), Alice Faye, already well established in screen musicals, received only third billing, below the film title. Mr. Powell and non-vocalizing Madeline Carroll placed above Miss Faye.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Take It or Leave It (1944)

Soundtrack:

Largo al factotum

Greatest strengths - Irving Berlin score, plus Dick Powell and Alice Faye

Songs include : He Ain't Got Rhythm - This Year's Kisses - You're Laughing At Me - The Girl on the Police Gazette Slumming On Park Avenue - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm

"On The Avenue" has been sitting on my video shelf for more than a dozen years - unwatched and overlooked. An oversight.

In spite of one of the other reviews above, the film is hardly the cinema tragedy painted by that reviewer.

Dick Powell, on loan out from Warner Brothers to Fox, Madeline Carroll and Alice Faye and The Ritz Brothers head an all star cast of Hollywood favorites - Joan Davis, Billy Gilbert, Alan Mowbray, Walter Catlett, George Barbier, Cora Witherspoon, Sig Ruman, Stepin Fetchit and others.

The production values are quite high, though the story in uninspired. Beautiful crisp blacks and whites fill the screen. Half a dozen hit tunes - some still performed 70 years later - written by Irving Berlin. Both Powell and Faye are in top voice and each get their share of tunes to introduce.

Alice Faye receives third billing under Powell and Carroll. This was likely one of the last times she would be billed as such - top stardom was right around the corner for her.

The dance routines are very 1930s and staged, somewhat generically, by Seymour Felix - lots of chorus girls and big stages. Sadly, "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm", the most enduring song of the film, is kind of tossed away in a production number of modest proportions.

The Ritz Brothers are an acquired taste, perhaps. They do have some better moments in the film, especially so in the opening number where they are less zany than in the rest of the film. Dance skills? Absolutely!

Madeline Carroll is an attractive woman, but Alice Faye sings, dances and quietly radiant through-out the entire film.

There are some amusing similarities between this film and "Hollywood Hotel" another Dick Powell from 1937 - both are show business stories, Powell gets slapped in the face in both films by a stuck up girl and uses the same facial expression both times, Powell escorts his female star around the circumference of an outdoor fountain at night in both films, Alan Mowbray also appears in both films

It's not a great film or a great musical, but it is as entertaining as many musicals of the era with it's greatest strengths being its score and its 2 top performers, Powell and Faye.