Best movie of this year hands down!

hyped garbage

Good start, but then it gets ruined

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The hijinks of 14th Street move to mid-town in this delightful musical which takes "42nd Street's" Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) to Broadway and into society after his easy money off of Union Square gives him the means to tackle Times Square. Only the first ten minutes of this movie shows him actually working in Burlesque; His girly-show revues with low-down comedy (a la "Sugar Babies" and "The Nance") become more elaborate and mainstream on Broadway, and very soon, he's the most prominent producer of musical revues on the "Gay White Way". His attendance at the auction of broke socialite Mona Barrie gives him an introduction to society even though their initial meetings does not leave her with a good impression of him. But a broke socialite needs a rich man to keep her in furs, and when he suggests a marriage of convenience to her to get his name in the society columns, she jumps at the chance, even though she's in love with a boorish opera singer. Standing in the background is the tough but love-lorn Alice Faye whom he considers to be "one of the boys", not realizing the extent of her affections. Of course, the relationship between Baxter and Barrie comes to a sudden end, and it is up to Faye & Baxter's assistant (Jack Oakie) to come to his aid to bring him back to the top of Broadway once again.There are so many great moments in this film that it is difficult to single out individual scenes, but I have to give a special thumbs up to the inclusion of "Fats" Waller as the elevator man who gets to do his specialty in the finale of the finger-snapping "I've got my Fingers Crossed", making you wish all the more that he had another big number. The glorious "I'm Shooting High" is the other big production number, performed with gusto by Miss Faye and later repeated on Broadway in the burlesque musical "Sugar Babies" with equal aplomb by the legendary Ann Miller. With her Jean Harlow like platinum blonde hair and husky voice, Alice has a natural screen presence, a combination of sweet and sassy, and at times, she really just comes across so easy-going that the fact that she doesn't seem to be even acting makes her all the more likable. Dixie Dunbar is adorable as Baxter's secretary. All the archetypes of the Broadway scene are present, with a few gay references thrown in that the Hays code didn't pick up on. I wanted to see more of the comic burlesque routines that sometimes really cut close to the border of good taste, but then again, good taste was something that burlesque never tried to emulate. As Baxter himself learns after taking wife Barrie's advice and producing something more sophisticated, he falls flat on his face and must return to the tried and true method of entertainment: scantily clad females singing and dancing, low down comic routines, and those fun little blackouts that usually ended with the orchestra playing the quick little "tah-dah" notes that indicated to the audience that they could laugh and applaud with the usually corny but often funny punch line.

If you've watched many musicals (particularly Fox musicals), then you'll have a strong sense of déjà vu when you watch it. In other words, the script is the exact same script that you've seen before and will see again if you watch any more musicals from this era it's . Without even searching IMDb, I recall having seen the exact same script (with very minor changes) in "Alexander's Ragtime Band". And, considering that Warner Baxter stars in the film, it can be compared in many ways to "42nd Street".Here is the clichéd story outline. Baxter is super-successful at what he does best--Burlesque-inspired musicals for the masses. However, he meets a highbrow society dame and loses his focus--trying to make sophisticated shows instead of his usual fare. Naturally, they flop. In addition, he has another woman who adores him but he just doesn't see it. Late in the film, this woman (Alice Faye) returns and unknown to him finances his comeback. Only then, when he's back on top, does he realize that he's loved her all along--and the film ends with them in the clinch.Unfortunately, this one has relatively bland songs and a terribly muted performance from Baxter. Regardless why, it's just a rather well made but dull musical with nothing distinguished to offer. I did appreciate, however, that the two female dancing leads were a bit chunky--a nice acknowledgment that not all ladies are size 4!

It seems many other contributing members are hypercritical of older films. Most films made in the 1930s and 1940s weren't meant to be memorable, just enjoyed for a brief time and then to be forgotten. Now television has resurrected them so people can look at them again.This film is typical of the era in which it was made. I did notice that it has some plot devices which re-appear in later 20th Century-Fox films (some of which also featured Alice Faye): The low-class man aspiring to high society and "a dame with class" repeated in "Hello Frisco Hello" and "Nob Hill", and Faye's getting passed up for another woman, then going off to London to be a big success on the stage there. Never let it be said that Darryl Zanuck didn't get mileage out of his story lines.Here we see Faye early in her career as a Jean Harlow knock-off, with platinum blonde hair and pencil-thin eyebrows. Not too long after this film, her appearance was normalized and she began singing in a lower key which made her voice so much richer. I think she was responsible for a whole new trend for female singers. Gone was the high-pitched, nasal sound, popular in the 1920s and early 30s.For fans of tap dancing, you can watch Dixie Dunbar, whose career never amounted to much, and also there is a nice performance by juvenile Gareth Joplin, on a level equal to that of any adult performer, but who evidently did not have much of a film career either.

Fox tries to imitate Warner Bros. in this slow-moving backstage romp that stars Alice Faye, Jack Oakie, and Warner Baxter, and directed by Sidney Lanfield. Baxter is the "King of Burlesque" who moves from a burlesque to a legitimate theatre and marries a socialite played by Mona Barrie. Alice Faye, in the typical role of an aspiring actress, looks appropriate for her part, though her presence struck me as cold and unmemorable, compared to her other Fox musicals. The film comes into full view in the last twenty minutes where we see a dazzling display of production numbers that recall those of Busby Berkeley. The film's choreography and songs were nominated for an Oscar. There is fun and frolic and the best songs/numbers are "Shooting High", "Too Good To Be True", "Whose Big Baby Are You" and "Lovely Lady".