Search - On the Avenue on DVD

One of Fox's best musicals

Jay Dickson | Portland, OR | 01/18/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fox's musicals haven't weathered so well as have the products of MGM and Warner Brothers: their performers were so singular that they've been forgotten over the years or are treated (as in the case of Carmen Miranda) largely as kitsch. But ON THE AVENUE shows beautifully what Fox could do exceptionally well in the musical format when they had all the right elements together--in this case, a superb Irving Berlin score.The queen of Fox musicals was Alice Faye, an extremely distinctive performer with a gorgeously lush contralto voice much like Karen Carpenter's. With her heavy eyelids and great open smile she always looked like she was smiling through tears, and no one was better at singing a rueful ballad, like this film's famous "This Year's Kisses," one of Berlin's rare sad numbers. Faye's part in this is a bit underwritten, and though Dick Powell is the male lead (at this point moving away from the juvenile twerp he played in Warners musicals to an authentic and convincing leading actor he would become in films noir--and here in superb voice), he must contend with the beautiful but forever irritating Madeleine Carroll as his aristocratic love interest. The film is redeemed, though, by the Ritz Brothers, another great Fox musical staple. All but forgotten today, the Ritzes were a kind of cross between the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges, and they could also sing well and dance even better. Their manic energies are not to everyone's tastes, but to many people (myself included) they're hilarious, and the surprisingly virile Harry Ritz is hysterical in his parody of Faye during the "Let's Go Slumming" number."

On the Avenue

Jay Dickson | 03/21/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Nothing heavy, this is a very enjoyable 1930s musical. The highlites are the musical numbers, since the songs are by Irving Berlin. While "I've got my love to keep me warm" is the best known, my favorite is Alice Faye's rendition of "This year's kisses," and the Ritz Brothers have some very funny routines. Highly recommended."

With Fame Comes Laughter

Samantha Kelley | USA | 03/18/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One the Avenue is a fun musical comedy with an excellent cast. Gary Blake (Dick Powell) writes and performs in a show that spoofs a well-known family; the family gets upset and plans to sue though they have no grounds on which to do so. The young woman of the household (Madeleine Carroll) takes the writer out to sway his opinion and the two fall for each other. Blake plans to retract the harsher parts of the skit, but his jealous co-star (Alice Faye) turns it into an even worse commentary.

Powell is excellent here, more mature than in his juvenile roles in the Busby Berkeley musicals, more confident and very attractive. He has lots of chemistry with the beautiful Carroll. Faye adds to the film with her gorgeous creamy voice and fun dancing. The Ritz Brothers provide a brash, obnoxious humor to the screen, but they fit their roles well. Stepin Fetchit also makes an appearance as a dim-witted stagehand.

The story is very well done and the romantic relationship is appropriately fleshed out. The musical numbers are highly enjoyable and truly supplement an already great film."

The Fox Musicals Were Bright

Buster49 | Utica, NY | 06/26/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I always felt that 20th Century Fox put out the best story/music combination in the mid 1930s to early 1940s. There is a light hearted bounciness to the songs and these Fox musicals are, for me, much preferred to the overdone, sluggish MGM musicals. WB was great too but had that harsh urban twist to them which is by no means a knock to that studio. I love them. The 20th musicals, with Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Jack Haley, Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, John Payne, Jack Oakie, display in these performers, an infectious light-hearted quality. Too bad Dick Powell couldn't have been part of this group after 1935; he would have fit right in with his high likeability factor. Both of Dick Powell's loan outs to Fox, "On the Avenue," along with the forgotten but terrific "Thanks a Million," from 1935, are 2 of his very best films from this era. I hope this latter title comes to dvd as well."