Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), 8

This send-up of ragtime song and dance begins in 1915 San Francisco when society boy Roger Grant decides to pursue popular rather than serious music.
(106 min) Released 1938-05-24
Director: Henry King
Stars: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley, Jean Herscholt, Helen Westley, John Carradine.
Seymour Felix ... dances staged by

Genres: Drama | Musical | Romance

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029852/

This film is in the Tap! Appendix for Dixie Dunbar and Wally Vernon; their number is ok, mostly comedic. Also good, but not tap: the dancing demons in Pack Up Your Sins.

Song/dance:

• Alexander's Ragtime Band, Performed by Alice Faye with Tyrone Power on violin, Don Ameche on piano, Jack Haley on drums, and others 
• Ragtime Violin, Performed by Jane Jones, Otto Fries, and Mel Kalish 
• That International Rag, Performed by Alice Faye, Jack Haley and Chick Chandler 
• Everybody's Doin' It Now, Performed by Wally Vernon and Dixie Dunbar (dance and vocal) and chorus, then sung by Alice Faye and chorus 
• Now It Can Be Told, Performed by Don Ameche (piano and vocal), Reprised by Alice Faye and by the band 
• This Is the Life, Performed by Alice Faye, Wally Vernon (dance and vocal) 
• When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam', Performed by Alice Faye 
• For Your Country and My Country, Performed by Donald Douglas at a recruiting station 
• I Can Always Find a Little Sunshine in the Y.M.C.A., Performed by The King's Men 
• Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, Performed by Jack Haley and army chorus 
• We're On Our Way to France, Performed by chorus 
• Say It with Music, Performed by Ethel Merman 
• A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, Performed by Ethel Merman 
• Blue Skies, Performed by Ethel Merman and Alice Faye with the speakeasy patrons joining in 
• Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil, Performed by Ethel Merman and chorus 
• What'll I Do, Performed by an offscreen chorus 
• My Walking Stick, Performed by Ethel Merman and chorus 
• Remember, Performed by Alice Faye 
• Everybody Step, Performed by Ethel Merman and chorus 
• All Alone, Performed by Alice Faye 
• Gypsy in Me*, Sung by Fred Santley with Ron Wilson at piano 
• at the Carnegie Hall concert:
• Marie, sung by chorus 
• Cheek to Cheek, Played on the radio, broadcast from Carnegie Hall 
• Easter Parade, Performed by Don Ameche and chorus 
• Heat Wave, Performed by Ethel Merman and chorus 
• Alexander's Ragtime Band, Reprised by Alice Faye 

*by Cole Porter; all others by Irving Berlin

Best fact from the commentary track: 60 of 108 minutes are music. (Length on dvd matches IMDb: 1:46:21. There are 3 deleted musical scenes on the dvd, for another 5 min.) Yes, there was plenty of plot too, but that explains my (prior) rating. This is a story of a band, 3 members, and their era, told via the songs they perform. More musicals should have this ambition, but with more dancing. Y'know, like Singin' in the Rain ('52); I guess "the band" is optional.

Fox, dir. King; 8