Tin Pan Alley

Alice Faye and Betty Grable team up in this costume musical as a pair of singing sisters. You have to hear the classic tune "K-K-K-Katy," sung by Jack Oakie using different lyrics throughout the movie, then sung and danced at the end by the sisters on stage and by marching World War I doughboys. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

Tin Pan Alley was the first try at a successful experiment Darryl Zanuck was trying. An actor who was as good looking as Tyrone Power and could contribute musically to the film. He found one in John Payne this was the first of four films that Payne and Faye did together. They were scheduled to do a fifth with The Dolly Sisters, but Alice retired after being offered that script.

Payne slipped very well into Ty Power's hero/heel character that he patented at 20th Century Fox. Payne's character Skeets Harrigan and his partner Jack Oakie are trying to hit it big in the music publishing industry pre World War I. He meets Alice Faye and her sister Betty Grable doing a vaudeville act and he falls for Faye bigtime. He loves her, but he wants success more. How they resolve their ambitions is crux of the movie.

Alice Faye and Betty Grable in their only film together play the Blane sisters. Alice is in good voice as always and she gets the best songs in the film. Payne partners her in the film's best number America I Love You and he also reprises with her in the only original song for the film, You Say The Sweetest Things, Baby.

You Say The Sweetest Things Baby was written by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Mack Gordon. Gordon had written with Harry Revel a whole group of songs that Faye introduced. But Revel left Fox and Darryl Zanuck teamed Gordon with Warren who had just left Warner Brothers. It was a felicitous teaming and Gordon and Warren wrote a whole group of some of the best loved tunes of the 40s, Chatanooga Choo Choo being the most famous and also You'll Never Know, probably Faye's best loved song.

In watching films like Tin Pan Alley something is lost unless you're an amateur historian like me. Esther Ralston does a cameo as Nora Bayes who was one of the best loved vaudeville stars pre-World War I. In 1940 people still knew who Nora Bayes was. Now I'm sure she draws a great big "who" from most people if they're asked who she is. A key scene in the movie is after Faye has delivered a smash version of America I Love You, Payne gives in to Nora Bayes request for the song because of his ambition. That's totally lost on younger viewers.

Actually Nora Bayes did introduce a very famous World War I era song, written by a guy who normally introduced his own material. She gave the first public performance of Over There written by George M. Cohan and documented nicely in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

You never ever go wrong watching an Alice Faye film.

"Tin Pan Alley" is a rare misfire for Fox, which had a string of hits around this time period. In fact, they used several of the same stars in this one as in previous pictures. Alice Faye, John Payne, Betty Grable and Jack Oakie - what more could you ask for? Well, you might ask for some better songs and a better storyline, because this plot is threadbare and had been done better many times in the past. Boy meets girl, Boy loses girl ( because pride goeth before a fall), boy wins girl back. Did you read the list of song titles? Well, most of them are background music except for "You Say The Sweetest Things", which was written especially for this picture and was the best number.

Special mention should be made of "America, I Love You", to which I have awarded a Hand-Painted Mustache Cup for the Worst Production Number In A Major Musical. Mournful and tuneless, this song was given a big build-up as a flag-waving tribute to the troops in WWI and all concerned tried mightily to put it over. This dreadful song, however, defied all efforts and pulled down an already routine musical into subpar status.

If you like the cast and if you like Fox musicals - and there are many to like - try another picture.

Alice Faye and Betty Grable were made for each other as a sister act, together or separately. As the dominant sister, Alice got most of the single numbers, but Betty got to show her stuff in the "Honeysuckle Rose"- "Moonlight and Roses" routine. I can't believe they were never paired again(Well, they were supposed to be in "The Dolly Sisters", but it was too late, as Alice decided to retire just then). John Payne and Jack Oakie were another great buddy pair, Oakie providing a perfect comic balance to Payne's serious demeanor, as a pair of struggling tune smiths. Oakie does an impromptu rendition of a classic George M. Cohan war moral booster, composed about the time this story takes place, at the beginning of WWI. This duo would appear together or separately in several more Faye films. Payne would also serve as a usually successful rival for Betty's heart in several other films. Too bad Oakie was never considered romantic material for the leading ladies. He was certainly charming enough. He could have teamed up with Betty while Payne was romancing or sulking with Alice.

The Nicholas Brothers were yet another talented pair, though they only appeared in their dance routine in "The Sheik of Araby" extravaganza. Breaking the color barrier, they appeared in a number of top musicals of this era, including "Sun Valley Serenade" and the all African American cast in "Stormy Weather", where they performed perhaps their most famous routine. Rotund veteran comedian Billy Gilbert seemed bored with his harem and other diversions, until Alice and Betty showed up in his harem, when he joined them in a memorable song and dance rendition of the title song for "The Sheik of Araby" scene. All in all, a great vaudevillian mix of song and dance, comedy and romantic drama. My main regret is that this wasn't filmed in Technicolor. Few films were then, and the studios didn't always pick the right ones for this luxury treatment. It's about time a DVD version of this classic musical comedy was made available, and dare I hope for a colorized version?

This film was essentially remade in 1949as "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", in Technicolor. June Haver and Gail Robbins took the places of Alice and Betty. Mark Stevens and S.Z. Sakal took the places of Payne and Oakie, respectively. I like the original better, except it was filmed in B&W.

"Tin Pan Alley" is a serviceable if slightly undernourished musical extravaganza starring Alice Faye, John Payne, Betty Grable, Jackie Oakie. I thought it would turn out to be as memorable and enchanting as Faye's greatest musicals like "That Night in Rio" or "Hello Frisco Hello" also co-starring John Payne, but it is nowhere near them. There is a sense that something is missing; the idea is there but somehow it doesn't quite coalesce, even despite the luminous presence of Faye. Nevertheless, it has one of the most spectacular dance and musical numbers ever staged: "The Sheik of Araby" - featuring Faye, Grable, and the Nicholas Brothers who also appeared in Grable's previous hit wonder, "Down Argentine Way". The dance number has a spark and excitement most of the movie lacks.