The Twentieth Century Fox production was actually the studio's biggest musical to date, and Dick Powell was brought in on loan from Warner Brothers. (He and Faye never co-starred again.) Irving Berlin's score is not his best but still features some good songs including "You're Laughing at Me," sung by Powell to Carroll, "He Ain't Got Rhythm," with some very impressive dancing from the Ritz Brothers (who otherwise wear out their welcome fast), "Slumming on Park Avenue," for which, Jane Lenz Elder has written, Faye's "legs deserved billing on their own," "This Year's Kisses," a lovely romantic ballad sung by Faye, and "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," sung by Powell. Recordings of the latter two songs reached #1 on the Hit Parade for three and six weeks, respectively. In 1940, Irving Berlin said, "I'd rather have Alice Faye introduce my songs than any other singer I know."
On the Avenue is not quite on the same plane as some of Faye's (or Powell's) other musicals but it does offer many pleasurable moments and a fine supporting cast. One funny sequence in a diner has Powell and Carroll riffing with diner owner Billy Gilbert and fellow patron Dewey Robinson. You'll never again hear anyone pronounce "asparagus" in quite the same way as does Gilbert. Also, George Barbier is very good as Carroll's father, and Sig Ruman makes for a slightly scary sight dressed in a skintight gym outfit - an image which unfortunately is not soon forgotten!
Tony Martin, who was dating Faye at this time and would soon marry her, later said, "She was a real nice girl, not one of these paint-and-powder dolls that were all over Hollywood then. Alice Faye was a nice person." Martin and Faye divorced in 1940, after which Faye married bandleader Phil Harris; they were still married when Harris died in 1995.
While Madeleine Carroll wins Dick Powell's heart at the end of On the Avenue, Alice Faye wins ours. Sweet yet sexy, she's much more appealing than Carroll (who is more of an icy beauty), and her aching reprise of "This Year's Kisses," in huge, sublime close-up, makes it easy to see why America fell in love with this girl-next-door.
On the Avenue is available as part of Fox Home Entertainment's The Alice Faye Collection, which also includes Lillian Russell (1940), That Night in Rio (1941), and The Gang's All Here (1943). Print quality varies widely from title to title, and while On the Avenue looks scratchier and more damaged than most of Fox's catalogue DVD transfers, it's still watchable.
The studio has served up a heaping of extras across all four discs. On the Avenue comes with an enthusiastic, scene-specific audio commentary from musical historian Miles Kreuger, a restoration comparison, a deleted scene with the Ritz Brothers, and a 19-minute featurette entitled Alice Faye - A Life On Screen. Interviewees include Faye's two daughters and various film historians including Kreuger and the author Jane Lenz Elder. Elder wrote a highly readable biography of Faye in 2002 called Alice Faye: A Life Beyond the Silver Screen. (Also worth seeking out is W. Franklyn Moshier's out-of-print The Alice Faye Movie Book, 1974.)
The featurette is awkwardly edited at times but does provide an interesting look at Faye's career, from her discovery by George White and Rudy Vallee in 1931 to her storming off the Fox lot in 1945 after she saw how Darryl Zanuck had cut her part to ribbons in Fallen Angel. She left the screening room, the lot, and Hollywood, planning never to come back, though she did return for one movie in 1962 (State Fair) and made three more film appearances in the 1970s. Especially welcome in the featurette are the gorgeous stills of Faye as well as clips from movies Fox hasn't yet issued on DVD - notably Hello Frisco, Hello (1943), which needs to be released! Hello Fox, hello! Are you listening?
For more information about On the Avenue, visit Fox Home Entertainment. To order On the Avenue, go to TCM Shopping.
by Jeremy Arnold
