Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)

[moira finnie]

One of my favorite old timey musicals, Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938-Henry King) is on TCM tonight, 2/11 at 8pm. It's pre-war Tyrone Power (callow, lightweight but promising, if a tad too pretty), the deliciously coarse yet wholesome Alice Faye with her soft and gentle, bovine eyes and glorious way with a ballad, and that terminally "nice" Don Ameche make up the sides of this eternal triangle, all putting over songs from the early 20th century in a plot that was old in 1899. Throw in Ethel Merman in one of her few movies, Jack Haley before he was a tin man, (singing "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning") and you have a heckuva entertaining musical with several Irving Berlin songs laced in with the older tunes. I haven't seen this one in years, but am hoping others will chime in with their opinions...gotta go catch Ethel dressed like a spangled devil! Here's the trailer:
[youtube][/youtube]

[ken123]

My Ethel was svelte.

[knitwit45]

I was really disappointed in this one. The plot was so chopped up (with or without the music) and it jumped so quickly from point to point, it was kind of disconcerting. Alice Faye has a lovely voice, but boy she scared the puddin' out of me when she first showed up. I know she was supposed to be coarse, but talk about over doing it!
Tyrone Power was such a hardheaded stinker, comes back from the war and is a swell guy. Huh? Don Ameche and she appeared to be happy, but he drops the bombshell on her, without any build up. When you first see Power after the war, it looks like he really needs that cane, but then he doesn't. Confusing.
There were so many things that would have made a good story, that were either edited out with a very heavy hand or never touched on in the first place.

It sounds like I hated the movie, I didn't, I just thought it wasn't very good.

[moira finnie]

Hi Nancy,
I guess that having seen this previously, I sort of ignore the plot completely. That bit where Tyrone Power plays Pygmalion to Alice Faye's Galatea was a plot device that Fox used so many times it was ridiculous, but yes, it was annoying. I tend to focus on the music and ignore the acting in most musicals, but I can understand why it might overwhelm any enjoyment of the film overall. Perhaps some of Alice Faye's other musicals will show up on TCM in the future. She really had a lovely voice.

[knitwit45]

I agree about Alice Faye's voice. Her ballads are wonderful, that voice is really smooth. I do think, in this one, Ethel Merman just completely outshone her. Merman's voice is really suited to this kind of music, while Faye's is better showcased in a slower, more downbeat tempo. I wonder what she thought about this movie, and about Ms. Merman?

[feaito]

I own this one on DVD and I didn't thought I was going to like it as much as I did (when I watched it). A very good musical film and very entertaining indeed. A great score too. Top notch entertainment!

[Uncle Stevie]

I saw this again the other night. Loved it. I never cared for Alice Faye but I loved her in this movie. I was also thrilled to see the svelt Ethel Merman. I'll bet she fought hard to keep that figure over the years.

[JackFavell]

I love pre-war Ty, Alice Faye, and most especially Don Ameche. He had it all, as far as I am concerned. I think he is wonderful. If he is a cipher that sings, then give me more ciphers! As you say, great Irving Berlin songs every five minutes (he certainly wrote enough of them), and I am a happy camper. Haven't seen it in years, but I got a copy recorded. Yay!

[stuart.uk]

I think Power's Alexander was selfish almost beyond belief in the way he lashed out at Faye for leaving the band to persue a solo career, when a producer wanted her and only her. He should have been happy for her. He was lucky to in that after Faye left, Ethel Merman fell into his lap and became hsi vocalist.

Mind you I was thinking in comparison of the recently deceased jazz band leader Johnny Dankworth and his vocalist wife Cleo Lane, who performed together for over 50-yrs without one getting to big for the other

[Uncle Stevie]

Ever since The Eddy Duchin Story (1992) I have nothing but the lowest opinion of Tyrone power as an actor. I really think he is a terribly non convincing performer. He reads his lines like a High Schooler. I am surprised he had so much succees. Perhaps he slept his way to the top.

[ken123]

The Long Gray Line & Nightmare Alley, for example, showed that Power could act, very well.

[feaito]

And "The Razors' Edge", "I'll Never Forget You", "This Above All" & "Blood and Sand", among others IMO.

[pvitari]

Oh man, I love Alexander's Ragtime Band. It's just this huge cornucopia of fantastic Irving Berlin music, and with Alice Faye, Ethel Merman, and Don Ameche providing the musical entertainment, what's not to love? Tyrone Power may be the lone non-musical figure but he's so gorgeous who cares and as the bandleader, he's the one who keeps it all together. Besides that (and I beg to differ most respectfully with Uncle Stevie), but the man was a terrific actor -- including giving a fine performance in The Eddy Duchin Story. (His finger-synching on the piano is jaw-dropping.)

My favorite Tyrone Power performance is as carny lowlife Stan Carlisle in Nightmare Alley (a performance critic Charles Taylor deemed "superb" in the recent October 4 issue of The Nation magazine) but he was superb in so many other things. And he could do it all, from the frothiest of comedies to costume epic adventures to heavy drama. Another favorite is The Mark of Zorro, where he expertly juggles three identities -- the foppish Don Diego, the heroic Zorro, and the "real" Diego, the man who he is when he's not pretending to be someone else. Sometimes he has to shift from one to the other in the blink of an eye, and he does it without missing a step.

Then there's Witness for the Prosecution where, if you don't know the story, he'll keep you guessing until the end on his guilt or innocence.

But if that's not convincing enough, listen to his readings of Keats poetry on the Caedmon record label, or his performance of Stephen Vincent Benet's poetry in the stage version of John Brown's Body. There are times I think he was wasted in film, even though that face was meant to be in front of a camera. He must have been incredible on stage.

He was a very intelligent, thoughtful, literary man, a pilot and a genuine war hero, who didn't think much of his movies (I think his fans like them a lot more than he did) and really did long to be on the stage. There's an absolutely fascinating portrait of him in Mai Zetterling's book All Those Tomorrows, in which she shows the complex, dissatisfied man behind the smiling star persona.

Er... back to musicals I guess! ;) Power actually appeared in several others -- two with Sonja Henie (Thin Ice and Second Fiddle; he sings a bit in the latter; not much of a voice but he's charming nonetheless) and another with Alice Faye, Rose of Washington Square. That movie was a thinly disguised version of the life of Fannie Brice, and Brice sued 20th Century Fox and won. :) Fox had to make changes to the movie because of the lawsuit.