1h 30min | Comedy, Musical, Romance, Sport | 9 May 1941
Director: Archie Mayo
Stars: Alice Faye, Jack Oakie, John Payne, Cesar Romero, The Ink Spots, The Nicholas Brothers.
Nick Castle ... dance director
I'd rated this before. The way it portrays the technology is familiar. I remember being tickled that the earliest radio was a headset experience. JO even has a line about how it's just you and the radio, nothing else interferes.
The musical highlight of the film is Ch 11, where the Ink Spots sing and the Nicholas Brothers dance to Alabama Bound; in the Tap! Appendix for the NB. The Ink Spots sing again in Ch 22. The Wiere Brothers appear twice, and leave an amazing amount of dead air with their silent physical humor both times. I doubt that happened much in the days of studio production, and they were in studio. Their dancing is not worthwhile; they're not much competition against the Ritz brothers for precision or comedy. Just FFWD'd through the film, the only dancing was done by brothers.
AF delivers good singing, as usual, sometimes joined by JP & JO. I'm pretty sure all the songs are radio performances. AF & JO do the bulk of the acting. Cesar Romero is a bright/breezy rich guy who finances the some early experiments and therefore benefits financially from being in on the ground floor of radio broadcasting. The romantic graph this time has 3 men smitten with AF, and JP plays too hot-tempered for my taste, but they are the couple that marries and reconciles. JO is claimed by his secretary in the final shot, and CR walks away with only his looks, charm and money.
Fox, dir. Mayo; 6+
