kidboots Alice Faye's heyday was from the mid 1930s to the early 1940s when she introduced a myriad of standards in that mellowed, honeyed voice of hers but Fox never seemed to do the right thing by her - maybe she was just too nice. There was always a newer, flashier star she had to share the limelight with - not always but it sure seemed like it!! Initially she served part of her apprenticeship playing second fiddle to Fox's biggest star Shirley Temple, then in the 1940s Betty Grable was getting the studio excited. Even when she did do a movie "On the Avenue" and got to sing a swag of songs she made popular, Madeline Carroll was in it to be paired with Dick Powell and Faye had to be content with a "sugar daddy"!! and when she was coaxed into doing a movie, "Fallen Angel", that she felt would take her career in a new direction suddenly sultry Linda Darnell's part was built up at the expense of her own. "Hello Frisco, Hello" was also a comeback - she was happily married to Phil Harris and had given birth to a daughter the year before - but this time everything worked out in her favour. In the two years she had been absent from the screen she had lost none of her public appeal or the ability to put over a song.With a medley of old time tunes the movie introduces the naughty, bawdy San Francisco of the early 1900s and a slick singing team from Sharkey's Saloon who sing "Lindy Lou", "Hello Frisco, Hello" and "You'll Never Know", hoping the act can push them into the big time but it only gets them fired. They start to put on free street shows ("Ragtime Cowboy Joe", "Sweet Cider Time"). Johnny (John Payne) is the wheeler dealer of the group and is able to put on a legitimate show due to "protection" money he is able to get from the saloons - they pay him and he keeps the street shows away from their premises.If any film was enhanced by Technicolor it was this one. The richness of the decor and the brightness of the costumes will leave you agog!! It would take a whole review to describe Alice Faye's costumes - her "Grizzly Bear" outfit includes a red ostrich feather hat and matching muff. She may not give an Academy Award performance but she looks absolutely gorgeous in these turn of the century gowns. It can't be all fun and games and Lyn Bari, as Bernice Croft, makes a beautiful "other woman" from Nob Hill. This is the crowd Johnny aspires to and of course comes unstuck.One of the highlights (for me) is Faye's "personality" rendition of "They Always Pick on Me". The songs (and beautiful costumes) keep coming - "Bedelia", "Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly" etc. Faye plays Trudy and Bernice's brother Ned takes a special interest in her, bringing a very interested English impresario to listen to her sing and whisk her off to the continent where she becomes the toast of London. Trudy returns to America to find all of Johnny's clubs closed - after marrying Bernice he turns his back on the Barbury Coast and pours all his money into bringing Grand Opera to San Francisco. Needless to say Trudy finds him down and out but with a little wheeling and dealing (involving Laird Cregar as a blustering prospector) he is put on his feet again for the encore of "Hello Frisco, Hello" and "You'll Never Know".Jack Oakie had been making audiences laugh since talkies first came in - his career was given a boost when Chaplin gave him the role of "Il Duce" in "The Great Dictator" but this movie saw him almost at the end of his career.

weezeralfalfa This lavish early Technicolor provided great escapism entertainment in the midst of WWII. To me, it clearly provides the best roles for Alice Faye and Jack Oakie, two of Fox's most popular performers, in a musical. June Havoc, as Oakie's low class Irish girlfriend and vaudeville performer partner, is also good, as are various choruses and specialty acts. Loads of tunes, nearly all performed on stage. On the other hand, the association of self-made status seeking burlesque kingpin Johnny Cornell(John Payne) and snobbish cynical Knob Hill society matron Bernice Croft(Lynn Bari) casts a markedly contrasting negative aspect to the film.I'm sure there are and have been such people in the world, but their personality types, taken to the extreme in this film, greatly distracts from the otherwise feel good tone of the film. The marriage of convenience between these two obnoxious characters clearly is sick, as is the continuing emotional attachment of Faye's character to Cornell, despite his repeated rebuffs and double crosses. But that's part of the standard formula for Fox musicals:create some romantic and professional melodrama to fill in between musical scenes. Just, in this film, it's overdone in the extreme. Probably Payne's most likable versions of his standard role in his numerous Fox musicals were those in "Weekend in Havana", where he again costars with Faye, and again ultimately dumps his stuffy socialite fiancée for the earthy Faye, and "It Happened in Sun Valley", where Bari again plays his ultimately dumped fiancée. Despite the same outcome, Bari's character is much more positive in that film, as is Payne's and doesn't leave the audience turned off.The raucous Barbary coast district of San Francisco, where most of the action takes place, was a popular set for several films in the '30s and '40s, including "Barbary Coast"('35), "San Francisco"('36), and "King of Burlesque"('36), all in B&W. The present film is actually a remake of the latter, with Faye and Oakie playing their same roles. Bari was in it too, but as an uncredited chorus dancer.Ironically, the actress who played Bari's part in that film was Mona Barrie:spelled differently, but pronounced the same! These films also have some obvious similarities to the popular MGM semi-musical "San Francisco", in which Clark Gable plays a Barbary coast kingpin very similar to Johnny Cornell, though more sympathetic,and Jeanette MacDonald plays a role very similar to that of Faye, as the one performer who gives an air of class respectability to the kingpin's entertainment empire. Again, the plot involves tensions between the kingpin and Knob hill society, and a love-hate relationship between the stars. Even the theme song from that film was included in the present film as background for a chorus number. But, Harry Warren and Mack Gordon, composed the signature song for this film: "You'll Never Know", which is generally regarded as Faye's most memorable film song(Actually, I prefer Ella Fitzgerald's rendition).Not surprisingly, exuberant veteran vaudeville-styled Jack Oakie tends to steal the show, both on stage and between the scenes. His warm comic persona was essential to this film to counter the increasingly dark characterizations of Johhny Cornell and Bernice Croft, and to help cheer up Faye after one of her double crosses by Cornell. Payne,Oakie and Faye had a basically similar relationship in the prior musical "Tin Pan Alley"... June Havoc was a talented, but second tier, Fox performer during this period. She is easily confused in name with June Haver, also starring or costarring in several Fox musicals of this period, including "The Dolly Sisters", with Betty Grable...Laird Cregar has a small role as Cornell's burley confident, notoriously leading him astray as to the source of money to finance Cornell's business comeback.I haven't seen Cregar's more sinister roles in his brief Hollywood career, but his first significant Hollywood role, as Pierre Radisson's jovial sidekick, in "Hudson's Bay", showed his potential as an actor. Unfortunately, he instituted an extreme crash diet in an effort to shake his type casting as an overstuffed ogre, and apparently wrecked his GI, necessitating surgery, from which he soon died.

wwilliams-6 One of the best musicals ever to come out of Fox and one of the top Alice Faye showcases. Never mind the plot, just set back and enjoy the sultry velvety voice of the most beautiful Alice Faye, the finest song stylist ever to come out of Hollywood .This beautiful film introduced the Academy Award winning song-"You'll Never Know" which Faye sings three times in the picture. This haunting song was reprised the following year by her in the wartime musical "Four Jills in a Jeep". It has been recorded countless times, however no one sings it like Faye. She pulls the heart strings in a professional fashion.If you are not familiar with Alice Faye, do yourself a favor and discover why she was the Number #1 Box-Office star over Bette Davis in the early 1940's. I highly recommend this lavish musical entertainment.

dwpollar 1st watched 11/24/2001 - 7 out of 10(Dir-H. Bruce Humberstone): Toe-tapping, hit playing musical that doesn't have a plot line much different than many of this dancing/singing genre but it is played out so well by the stars involved that it keeps you interested. The songs have romance, humor, and hit quality chorus's that made me want to have the music itself(if it's available). This is supposed to have been the most popular war-time film and I can understand why although because a lot of people weren't going to the movies back then it's been relatively forgotten. I'm glad I was able to see this and it made me hunger for more of this type. Watch it if you can find it, it won't disappoint you.