User Reviews

As the victims of temperamental star Bebe Daniels, these future stars of fictional Hollywood got lessons in "how not to be" in watching Daniels at her worst. Playing supposed over the hill has-beens in both this and 1933's "42nd Street", Daniels looks far from over the hill and is still lovely and filled with sparkle in spite of her character's temperaments. Whether playing Dorothy Brock in "42nd Street" (where she used a wealthy older man to make a Broadway comeback while in love with someone else) or Diane De Valle here (keeping a daughter's identity hidden under the lie that she's her younger sister), Daniels seems much younger than her characters are supposed to be. According to records, she was only 32 when she made "42nd Street", and thus only 34 here, and if that was considered "over the hill" in the mid 1930's, that's a pretty sad statement on the times. In the opening scenes, young female audience members admit they like her but wish she'd stop trying to be 18. "Sister" Rosina Lawrence is apparently graduating from high school which indicates that her character, if Daniel's actual age, was born when she was 16!

At any rate, Daniels is the headliner of a failing vaudeville tour, supposedly going onto other towns, but stopped there by the arrival of a telegram indicating that the New York office is disappointed in the box office receipts and is cancelling the remainder of it. Hurrying back to Hollywood to star in a movie operetta called "Music is Magic", Daniels makes all sorts of demands on the studio head. Tired from arguing with Daniels, the studio head is in no mood for Alice Faye's impromptu audition at his favorite Mexican restaurant. Faye manages to get a job on Daniels' film in the chorus (having been a part of the failed tour Daniels just left), and when several chorus girls are given the chance to try to show Daniels how it is done, it is only Faye who can do the song any justice. Sister/daughter Lawrence shows up for a visit, and mother finds herself losing her boyfriend, Ray Walker, to her own daughter/sister. When an accident on the set occurs, the temperamental Daniels must wake up to her own vanity and responsibilities and make efforts to change her life.

The story sounds like it surrounds the character of Diane De Valle played by Bebe Daniels, but Alice Faye's Peggy Harper is equally as important, and because of her popularity at Fox studios got top billing. The platinum blonde Faye is no Jean Harlow, and her singing voice isn't exactly what you would call "hot", but somehow, Faye manages to make her characterization and vocal inefficiencies work. She's a unique star in the sense that without her, there wouldn't have been a great musical transition from Fox Studios to 20th Century Fox where Faye reigned as the top musical queen until Betty Grable came along. Faye's early films show her as wise beyond her years, quite a lady in spite of the situations she's in, and this makes her flow into mature leading musical star during Grable's rise all the more realistic. Faye manages to stand the test of time with her down to earth but respectable persona, and along with Grable shows why Fox's musical leading ladies were the most un-diva like of all of Hollywood's movie musical stars.

The comic sidekicks here are a bit obnoxious with Frank Mitchell and Jack Durant rather obtrusive in their efforts to get laughs. The real laughs comes from Hattie McDaniel as Daniels' maid, petrified of flying, and revealing as much just with a pop of her big eyes as Daniels asks her to get something for her. Luis Alberni is very funny in a bit as the Mexican cantina owner, losing his temper when customers complain about the song Faye sings right at their table. The title song is heard throughout but never becomes an annoying or repetitive tune, hysterically sung briefly by a beautiful chorus girl with a horrible speech impediment. When it is sung as part of the lavish finale, it goes into energetic overdrive, and confirms why Faye remained a star as long as she did and why she has a cult following today.

I hate to be picky, but my good friend W. Franklyn Moshier has inadvertently made a couple of minor mistakes in his really splendid book on Alice Faye. The running time quoted on the copyright entry of 6,000 feet is wrong. The clerk who filled in the application form was obviously approximating. Also I rather doubt if this was the first film to bear the 20th Century-Fox trademark. I'm pretty certain Bad Boy preceded (and it's possible one or two others as well). Nor is it the film debut of actor Ray Walker. No way! Walker appeared in at least five films before this one, including an important role in Baby Take a Bow (1934). However, it certainly is the last Hollywood movie made by Bebe Daniels before she moved to England.

Moshier is also unhappy that Hattie McDaniel is always referred to in the movie as Hattie, but is listed as playing "Amanda" in the credits. The reason is simple. The character was Amanda, but Thomas Beck, right in the middle of an otherwise perfect long take, absentmindedly addressed her by her real name. Rather than attempt to re-shoot a difficult take, Marshall decided to re-name the character, Hattie. Either the continuity girl or the titles department slipped up. Or, as often happened at Fox, the title cards had already been prepared.

As far as I'm concerned, the movie is an absolute delight! I love every minute of this movie. And I don't care that a lot of other carping critics don't like it. I think Mitchell and Durant are the funniest team on four legs, Bebe Daniels (in a somewhat unsympathetic role) is a sensation, and Alice Faye an absolute knock-out! True, Ray Walker, stuck in a cliched role is no James Cagney, but he's reasonably personable. Admittedly he's overshadowed by everyone else in the cast, but that's not wholly his fault. I'm a sucker for Hollywood stories. This one has some glorious moments including a visit by a producer and his flack to a Mexican-style night club run by the delightfully irascible Luis Alberni; a laundress giving hilariously incompetent animal imitations; Daniels attempting to lay down the law to a sarcastic theater manager; and Mitchell and Durant running riot in a runaway street car! And that's not counting the musical numbers or Alice Faye herself (who, as usual, is absolutely fantastic!)