On the Avenue

Plot synopsis:
Gary Blake (Dick Powell) stars in a new show, On the Avenue, with Mona Merrick (Alice Faye). The show contains a satire on The Richest Girl in the World, Mimi Carraway (Madeleine Carroll). Mimi and her father (George Barbier) are in the audience on opening night and they feel insulted. She goes backstage and tries to get Gary to take the skit out of the show. He refuses and calls her a "bad sport".
Shocked by the remark, Mimi decides to make a date with Gary. They spend the entire evening together and, by morning, have fallen in love. He finally agrees to revise the skit so it can no longer hurt the Carraways. Mona is in love with Gary and is furious when she hears about Gary's date with Mimi. When the Carraways appear to see the revised sketch, she changes it, without Gary's knowledge, making it worse than before. The Carraways decide to file suit against Gary.
To get back at him, Mimi buys the show from the producer and embarrasses Gary by hiring a paid audience to walk out on the show. Word leaks out to the press and Gary is now the laughingstock of New York. Furious, he tears up his contract, refusing to work with Mimi. Soon, Mimi becomes engaged to Arctic explorer Frederick Sims (Alan Mowbray). On her wedding day, Mona arrives and tells Mimi that it was she, not Gary, who changed the skit. She runs out on the wedding and is taken to city hall with Gary to be married.
The movie's action is interspersed with songs from the play, including Berlin's songs "He Ain't Got Rhythm," and "Let's Go Slumming On Park Avenue."

Tags: romantic

Review:
ON THE AVENUE (20th Century-Fox, 1937), directed by Roy Del Ruth, is a lively musical film capitalizing on the current trend of screwball comedies that never seems to go out of style: spoofing high society.
For instance, art imitating life with a theatrical company poking fun of a rich family with a well-to-do family recognizing themselves as the subject matter, and taking action.Gary Blake (Dick Powell), star of the latest musical show, "On the Avenue," has written a play about "The Richest Girl in Town," starring himself as the rich father with Mona Merrick (Alice Faye) in the title role.
Mimi Carraway (Madeleine Carroll), the richest girl in town, along with her father, the Commodore (George Barbier), Aunt Fritz (Cora Witherspoon) and fiancé, Frederick Sims (Alan Mowbray), an Arctic explorer, attend the opening and immediately recognize themselves as the topic of society fun.
Believing Gary is at fault, Mimi gets even by buying the rights to the show and hiring patrons to walkout during Gary's performance and using the Ritz Brothers to make him look ridiculous for every newspaper critic in town to see.
Once Gary discovers what Mimi has done, it becomes his turn to have the last laugh.With music and lyrics composed by the legendary Irving Berlin, the motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "He Ain't Got Rhythm" (sung by Alice Faye, and The Ritz Brothers); "The Girl On the Police Gazette"(sung by Dick Powell in 1890s attire, bowler and mustache); "You're Laughing at Me" (sung by Powell to Madeleine Carroll); "This Year's Kisses" (sung by Faye); "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (sung by Powell and Faye); "Slumming on Park Avenue" (Sung by Alice Faye and The Ritz Brothers); "You're Laughing at Me" (Powell); "Ochye Tchonia"(Russian Folk Song sung and performed by The Ritz Brothers); "This Year's Kisses'" (sung by Alice Faye); and "Slumming in Park Avenue"(sung by cast).In spite the fact that the Berlin songs, as good as they are, never became as legendary as "Blue Skies" or "White Christmas," he did acquire fine singers to promote his distinguished tunes: Dick Powell, on loan out from Warner Brothers, having the film's best song, "You're Laughing at Me," while Alice Faye, in a secondary role, contributes some of her best vocals, namely "This Year's Kisses." In between songs,the Ritz Brothers collaborate their version of bizarre comedy, ranging from facial expressions, crossed-eyes, and dressing in drag.
Others in the cast include: Joan Davis (Miss Katz, a secretary); Douglas Fowley(Eddie Eads); Stepin Fetchit as "Step," billed as Herman; Sig Rumann(Herr Hanestange); Billy Gilbert (Joe Papaloupas, the lunch wagon proprietor); Walter Catlett (Jake Dibble); and E.E. Clive (Ben, the Central Park Horse Cabby), Dewey Robinson (Lunch Wagon Patron), among others.The sequence where Powell (in tuxedo and top hat) and Carroll (in glittering white evening gown) are strolling through Central Park, in medium camera range the couple resemble that of current song and dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
In fact, watching Powell and Carroll together in this scene alone, anyone would expect them to go into their dance to "You're Laughing at Me," which doesn't happen.
With Seymour Felix credited as choreographer, much of the dancing takes place on stage.Regardless of listenable tunes, agreeable cast and above-average story, ON THE AVENUE is a forgotten item from the 1930s.
Its 1994 video cassette distribution consisted of an added bonus with a surviving comedy outtake featuring Alice Faye and the Ritz Brothers.
Glowingly photographed in B&W by Lucien Andriot on Zanuck's Twentieth Century Fox's lot, the blonde English beauty Madeline Carroll --best remembered for being handcuffed to Robert Donat in "The 39 Steps"-- never looked more enchanting.
The great character comic Sig Ruman ("To Be or Not to Be") shows up as an over-weight trainer in gym clothes, and for the grand finale even gets to sing part of "Slumming on Park Avenue" in a German accent.
Excellent Alice Faye Musical with lots of memorable tunes.
But "On the Avenue" has a taste and class of its own, not to mention lots of great and rollicking tunes including the memorable "Slumming on Park Avenue", "He Ain't Got Rhythm", "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm", and "This Year's Kisses".
The Irving Berlin score is among the best he ever wrote for the screen and Alice does well with Let's Go Slumming on Park Avenue and This Year's Kisses.
So Zanuck had to reach out to his former employer, Jack Warner, to borrow Dick Powell to play opposite Faye.
Ironically Powell got the hit song out of this film with I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm.The rest of the cast is top rate.
Madeline Carroll plays a typical 1930s débutante and it's the antics of her family and actor-writer Dick Powell's satire of same that form the basis of the story.
My two personal favorites of the supporting cast are George Barbier who always hits the right note as Madeline's perennially choleric father and Billy Gilbert who has a great bit as a diner owner.Wonderful film, great entertainment..
Alice Faye's singing is a real plus for this movie and Dick Powell sounds pretty good as well.
Greatest strengths - Irving Berlin score, plus Dick Powell and Alice Faye.
Songs include : He Ain't Got Rhythm - This Year's Kisses - You're Laughing At Me - The Girl on the Police Gazette Slumming On Park Avenue - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"On The Avenue" has been sitting on my video shelf for more than a dozen years - unwatched and overlooked.
An oversight.In spite of one of the other reviews above, the film is hardly the cinema tragedy painted by that reviewer.Dick Powell, on loan out from Warner Brothers to Fox, Madeline Carroll and Alice Faye and The Ritz Brothers head an all star cast of Hollywood favorites - Joan Davis, Billy Gilbert, Alan Mowbray, Walter Catlett, George Barbier, Cora Witherspoon, Sig Ruman, Stepin Fetchit and others.The production values are quite high, though the story in uninspired.
Sadly, "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm", the most enduring song of the film, is kind of tossed away in a production number of modest proportions.The Ritz Brothers are an acquired taste, perhaps.
Absolutely!Madeline Carroll is an attractive woman, but Alice Faye sings, dances and quietly radiant through-out the entire film.There are some amusing similarities between this film and "Hollywood Hotel" another Dick Powell from 1937 - both are show business stories, Powell gets slapped in the face in both films by a stuck up girl and uses the same facial expression both times, Powell escorts his female star around the circumference of an outdoor fountain at night in both films, Alan Mowbray also appears in both filmsIt's not a great film or a great musical, but it is as entertaining as many musicals of the era with it's greatest strengths being its score and its 2 top performers, Powell and Faye..
I don't know what's better - Irving Berlin's songs (Let's Go Slumming, He Ain't Got Rhythm - to start) or the production numbers with the Ritz Brothers (especially those two numbers just mentioned).
Just boy meets girl,but the score by Irving Berlin lifts this one above most of the others.Two of his   gems "This years kisses" and "Your laughing at me" show why his songs are timeless.One of Alice Faye's early roles,and the one that made her a star..
"On the Avenue" was made in 1937 and starred Madeline Carroll, Dick Powell, Alice Faye and the Ritz Brothers.
However, Mona Merrick (Faye), the leading lady who is in love with Gary, performs the skit so that the family comes off as even worse.
Mimi retaliates by buying the production and planning some big revenge on Gary.There are some good numbers and wonderful singing by Faye and Powell; alas, the appeal of the Ritz Brothers has always been lost on me.
Alice Faye looks great and sings in her beautiful, smooth contralto; her stardom was just about to hit its peak.All in all, very pleasant.
Also had mixed feelings on the Ritz Brothers, though admittedly this is one of their better film outings.They don't disappoint in the dancing, which they are remarkably nimble at, and do have some entertaining sequences, with the slumming number being especially priceless.
Their comedy is an acquired taste, to many people and to me, and while some parts work others are overdone, gimmicky and bizarre so it comes over as irritating.Flaws aside, 'On the Avenue' works absolutely terrifically as entertainment and as a film on the whole.
"You're Laughing At Me" and "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" are particularly noteworthy, while "This Year's Kisses" has the benefits of being beautifully sung and providing a lot of emotion.Roy Del Ruth directs adeptly, and his reputation from getting great performances from his casts is evident.
Both in the musical numbers and in the comedy and the drama, making for a script with a good balance of the funny and the heart-warming.Madeleine Carroll and Dick Powell are both stunning, as is an affecting Alice Faye in one of her better and underrated performances (though all her performances seen of her have never been less than very good).
The cast is top notch (Alice Faye is outstanding in her numbers and she brings real pathos to her role as the ignored but adoring admirer of Dick Powell), the story silly and witty in that charming mid 1930s screwball comedy style and the score by Irving Berlin is one of his very best.
The parody they do on "Let's Go Slumming" with Harry Ritz in drag, dressed in the identical outfit worn by Alice Faye only moments before, is just priceless.
Faye Stands Out. Ignore the sappy plot but enjoy the musical productions especially Faye and the Ritz Brothers (who dance bare feet in one of them!).
Silly backstage story with a beautiful but uninteresting leading lady in Madeleine Carroll, this 20th Century Fox musical is buoyed by a couple of happy factors: third-billed Alice Faye, in the last of her kewpie-doll roles (after this she was always a noble leading lady, and arguably less interesting), and an excellent Irving Berlin score.
Dick Powell, stuck with playing the sort of insipid roles he hated at Warners, doesn't seem that happy, and Cora Witherspoon, as Carroll's dotty aunt, dithers in a part that almost certainly was designed for Alice Brady.
But Faye's "This Year's Kisses" and "Slumming on Park Avenue" are fabulous, and the Ritz Brothers, while nobody's favorite comedy team, are well used.
It also features the Ritz Brothers as well as Alice Faye and Dick Powell.
Including the Ritz Brothers and Stepin Fetchit didn't help, that's for sure.
The only big plus in the film COULD have been Alice Faye--but she just isn't given much to do because the filmmakers didn't realize she would very soon be a mega-star--far bigger than Powell or Carroll.
Within a year of making "On The Avenue", Faye would be on to far better things and probably never looked back..
A scene in a small diner, featuring Billy Gilbert, Madeleine Carroll, and Dick Powell, is one of the most embarrassing comedy bits of the era.
Dick Powell does his best, but the plot keeps him from doing anything more than he did in Dames and the other Warner Brothers musicals of the time.
Alice Faye isn't given much to do but pout and sing some forgettable songs.
The problem with this movie is that Alice Faye should have had a bigger part and got her man at the end.
And, of course, you just knew that Gary Blake (Dick Powell) would found longer, lasting happiness with warm hearted Mona (Alice Faye) than wilful, spoilt Mimi (Madeline Carroll).
"On The Avenue" was her first prestigious film but top billed Madeline Carroll was always going to end up with the guy - in this case Dick Powell, who was still in his musical period.Gary Blake's musical "On The Avenue", a satirical revue that pokes fun at a prominent society family, is the hit of the season.
The course of true love doesn't run smooth and after witnessing a particularly barbed skit, Mimi secretly buys the show in order to embarrass Gary with a few surprises of her own thrown in.The most memorable thing about the film is Faye's singing of a couple of the most beautiful songs of the late thirties.
Dick Powell gets to sing "The Girl on the Police Gazette" and the melodic "You're Laughing At Me".
The cast is rounded out by the always good Alan Mowbray (who didn't have much to do), the Ritz Brothers, who seemed like an earlier version of Danny Kaye and Cora Witherspoon as a dizzy aunt, who was definitely no threat to Alice Brady.Recommended..
Songs: "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" (Powell, Faye ); "Slumming on Park Avenue" (Faye, Ritz Brothers, chorus); "He Ain't Got Rhythm" (Faye, Ritz Brothers, chorus); "You're Laughing At Me" (Powell); "The Girl on the Police Gazette" (Powell, Faye, chorus); "This Year's Kisses" (Faye); - all music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.
88 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Famed as the movie that deleted its title song, what's left is the story of a beautiful heiress and her pompous father, who senselessly object to a satirical sketch of themselves in a Broadway show (thus giving the annoying show reams of free publicity).COMMENT: "On the Avenue" has a large number of good things going for it: Alice Faye, Madeleine Carroll, Dick Powell, George Barbier, Alan Mowbray, Sig Rumann, Billy Gilbert; Irving Berlin songs; a reasonably amusing story; 20th Century-Fox production values.On the other hand, it manages a number of big disappointments as well: Alice Faye, the Ritz Brothers, Stepin Fetchit; not enough Irving Berlin songs; a story that gets in the way; mediocre direction and (aside from the beautiful photography) lackluster technical credits.To take these problems one by one.
Even in her musical numbers she tends to play second fiddle to either Dick Powell or the Ritz Brothers.
It's clear that he was treated as number one by the studio (which is what we might expect, as he was loaned by Warners) with Miss Carroll coming in second, and Alice a distant third.
The hit song, "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm", is entertaining too.
OTHER VIEWS: Saddled with those obnoxiously raucous, hammily amorphous "comedians", the Ritz Brothers, who dare to lampoon Alice Faye of all people, "On the Avenue" is something less than the first-class Faye vehicle the credits promise.
Alice is often pushed aside not only by the demands of the straight story in which plays little part but even by her singing co-star Dick Powell.
When the wealthiest girl in the world and her family are spoofed in a Broadway musical revue, she takes action against the producers and ends up falling in love with the leading man!
That's about all the plot line in this Irving Berlin classic that stars Dick Powell (on loan from Warner Brothers), Madeline Carroll, Alice Faye, and The Ritz Brothers.
Dick Powell, always paired with Ruby Keeler in those Warners musicals (except when someone like Gloria Stuart or real-life wife Joan Blondell stepped in), came over to Fox for this two years after doing a delightful political musical spoof called "Thanks a Million".
When Powell decides he no longer wants to cruely spoof Carroll and papa George Barbier, Faye adds her own schtick into the revue material.
They do fine when spoofing Alice Faye's "Let's Go Slumming" by one of them appearing as her in drag.
Irving Berlin's music is wonderful, especially the standard "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm".Sad to state, Joan Davis, who plays a secretary in the film, has very little to do.
Still, this is a very enjoyable film, and worth a look on DVD, which has a great bio on Alice Faye attached..
Consider the plot: We're spoon-fed the information that Gary Blake (Dick Powell) has written and will star in a new Revue 'On The Avenue' just about to open on Broadway and co-starring Mona Merrick (Alice Faye).
Cut to opening night and after a number by Mona (He Ain't Got Rhythm) we segue into a sketch satirising 'the richest girl in the world' even as the subject of the sketch, Mimi Caraway (Madeleine Carroll) takes her seat in the orchestra along with her father, Commodore Caraway (George Barbier) and fiancé Frederick Sims, the well-known Arctic explorer (Alan Mowbray).
So, if you've seen Let's Make Love starring Yves Montand and Marilyn Monroe then you've more or less seen On The Avenue but Let's Make Love had neither Alice Faye nor an Irving Berlin score and On The Avenue had to make do with Dick Powell instead of the great Yves Montand.
Be that as it may Berlin contributed a fine score in which ironically singing joke Dick Powell, on loan from Warners, got to 'sing' what has become the best-known number, I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm - for good measure he was also allotted two further ballads, You're Laughing At Me (how right he was) and The Girl On The Police Gazette, whilst Alice Faye, the best singer by a mile, wound up with This Year's Kisses, Slumming On Park Avenue and He Ain't Got Rhythm.
On the Avenue has a simple musical comedy plot.
Dick Powell plays the lead actor and creator of a musical comedy on Broadway.
The girl (Madelein Carroll) gets steamed up, goes backstage, slaps Powell around, and then .
He promises to change the play so it is less offensive to her, but the lead actress (Alice Faye) is in love with him and she manages to make it even more offensive when Carroll and her family come back to the theater to see it again.
Carroll then gets revenge by buying the musical from its producers and sabotaging Powell's performance.It's a promising little plot, but the attempts at comedy they hang on it often misfire terribly.