Alice Faye Movies

The complex life of the woman who came to personify Latin America in the minds of millions of North American moviegoers during the '30s, '40s, and '50s is the focus of this documentary. But while the spunky Miranda with her distinctive fruity hats was very popular in the North, she was not so beloved in South America where many were offended by the cartoon-like, stereotypical image she embodied. The documentary explores these different perceptions as well as chronicling her ascent to fame and aspects from her troubled personal life, via film clips, and interviews with many of the entertainer's friends. Also included are interviews with Brazilian commentators and the occasional dramatization. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A merry chase ensues when a diamond heist goes awry in this fast-paced comedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This is the third time around for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. The action takes place in urban Texas instead of the traditional setting in rural Iowa. This film version contains five extra songs written exclusively by Richard Rodgers. Box office results were adequate at best, and movie going public deemed this version the least interesting of the three. The youth audience was lured by the casting of Ann-Margaret, Pat Boone and Bobby Darin. Alice Faye returned to the big screen after a sixteen year absence as Melissa Frake. Tom Ewell plays her husband, Abel. The plot finds a family traveling to Dallas for the Texas State Fair. Singing commences on the ferris wheel, the merry-go-round and in other locales. The only real action is the anticipation of a drag race between Wayne (Pat Boone) and the carrot topped, malevolent motorhead Red (Edward "Tap" Canutt). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Four Jills in a Jeep is the (mostly) true story of a four-girl USO team, entertaining American troops overseas. Kay Francis, Martha Raye, Carole Landis and Mitzi Mayfair play "themselves," recreating their recent whirlwind tour of Europe and North Africa. This wisp of a plot takes a back seat to the musical numbers performed by the four stars, by Dick Haymes in his screen debut as a singing GI, and by guest stars Alice Faye, Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda. Phil Silvers, George Jessel, and Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra also pop up to do their usual. Very much a time capsule of the War years, Four Jills in a Jeep was later adapted into a best-selling book, ostensibly written by costar Carole Landis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sgt. Andy Mason Jr. (James Ellison) is on the eve of shipping out from New York with his unit -- he's the son of Andrew Mason Sr. (Eugene Pallette), a wealthy, blustery Wall Street financier. While paying respects to his father and the latter's business partner, dithering fuss-budget Peyton Potter (Edward Everett Horton), at the Club New Yorker, he spots chorus girl Eadie Allen (Alice Faye) and turns on the charm and all of the allure that the ne'er-do-well son of a Wall Street millionaire can muster. That, however, doesn't impress Eadie, who ignores his invitation so she can do her patriotic bit helping servicemen at the Stage Door Canteen (or, as it's called here, the "Broadway Canteen"). Realizing how down to earth and genuine she is -- exactly the kind of girl who doesn't care about his money or social position -- Andy shows a bit of the boyish innocence he has hidden beneath the arrogance that comes from his background of wealth and privilege, and also some humility, hiding that background and his real name. Before the night and their "date" on the Staten Island Ferry are over, they're genuinely in love with each other, but that presents a problem -- since age 12, Andy has been unofficially "engaged" to Potter's daughter Vivian (Sheila Ryan), who expects to marry him, and he can't quite bring himself to hurt Vivian by telling her that he's met someone else.

Flash forward a few months, and Andy is on his way home on leave, a hero in the Pacific, and his father is so proud that he has to do something special to honor him, trying to rent out the Club New Yorker for a party but discovering that it's closed for rehearsals of a new production. Suddenly, his fatherly devotion, patriotism, and Wall Street experience all click together -- he brings the entire performing company, plus Benny Goodman's band, up to his and Potter's adjoining estates in Westchester to stage their act for his upscale neighbors and friends as part of the biggest War Bond rally ever seen (minimum admission a new 5,000-dollar War Bond), and in the process giving his son the biggest party he's ever seen. This leads to more comic turns for Horton's Potter, as a man who would make coffee nervous -- especially around show people -- but delights his ex-dancer wife (Charlotte Greenwood). That's also how Eadie and Vivian end up at the Potter mansion together, comparing notes on their remarkably similar respective fiancés. When the show's star, Dorita (Carmen Miranda), lets the cat out of the bag, it looks like Andy may lose Eadie, who can't bear to lose Andy but also won't even try to take him away from Vivian, who loves him too, but has loved him a lot longer. But while they sort out their romance, the show must go on, and go on it does. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of commercial radio, 20th Century-Fox cooked up the pageantlike entertainment The Great American Broadcast. Opening with clips of such airwaves favorites as Dick Powell and Fred Allen (courtesy of earlier Fox films like Thanks a Million), the picture gets under way in 1918, as ambitious army buddies Bix Martin (John Payne) and Chuck Hadley (Jack Oakie) try and fail to establish themselves in the business world. At long last, our heroes enter the new field of radio broadcasting, where after several technical and tactical mishaps they achieve success. But Bix and Chuck are strictly small-timers, and soon they're left behind by the big-city stations. The partners break up, while Bix's songstress wife Vicki Adams (Alice Faye) seeks out a loan to get her husband back on his financial feet. When she approaches her wealthy ex-boyfriend Bruce Chadwick (Cesar Romero), Bix burns up and walks out on her. But old pal Chuck comes to the rescue, staging a reunion between Bix and Vicki during the first-ever coast to coast network broadcast. Rather shaky as history, The Great American Broadcast works best on a nostalgia level, offering guest appearances by such specialty performers as The Ink Spots, The Nicholas Brothers, and The Wiere Brothers (of Road to Rio fame). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lillian Russell is the sanitized musical biopic of the legendary (and much-married) 19th century musical comedy star. Discovered in 1880 by bandleader Tony Pastor (Leo Carrillo), Lillian Russell (Alice Faye) wastes no time rising to fame and fortune on the Broadway stage. Along the way, she curries the favor of such eligible bachelors as newspaperman Alexander Moore (Henry Fonda), composer Edward Solomon (Don Ameche), and railroad tycoon Diamond Jim Brady (Edward Arnold). She marries the first two, and has a high old time (albeit chastely) with the third. The story ends with Russell's retirement in 1912, and her reunion with the one true love of her life. The film's hands-down highlight is a timeworn but classic routine involving those two Broadway comedy giants Joe Weber and Lew Fields, both of whom had appeared on-stage with the real Lillian Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1923 as a vehicle for Marion Davies, Rida Johnson Young's warhorse theatrical property Little Old New York was dusted off by 20th Century-Fox for Alice Faye, Fred MacMurray and Richard Greene. The latter plays the nominal lead, Scottish inventor Robert Fulton, who in 1807 arrives in New York City with the intention of building a steamboat which will accelerate transportation between the many boroughs. Everyone laughs at "Fulton's Folly" with the exception of gorgeous tavern keeper Pat O'Day (Alice Faye), who offers Fulton shelter and financial assistance. This doesn't sit at all well with Pat's boyfriend Charles Brownne (MacMurray), who like most of the sailors in the region is fearful that Fulton's steamboat will put him out of business. By film's end, however, Brownne has aligned himself with Fulton, if only because of his intense dislike for the villain of the piece, rival mariner Regan (Ward Bond). Several notably 19th century New York personages show up for cute cameo bits, among them Nicholas Roosevelt (Robert Middlemass), John Jacob Astor (Roger Imhof) and Washington Irving (Theodore Von Eltz). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The gathering war clouds in the late 1930s prompted a number of Hollywood films about recent political upheavals, one of which was 20th Century-Fox's Barricade. While fleeing war-torn China by train, two Americans-singer Emmy Jordan (Alice Faye) and journalist Hank Topping (Warner Baxter)-are attacked by Mongol bandits. United in danger, Faye and Baxter fall in love as they attempt to escape the American embassy where they're holed up. More than one reviewer noted that Barricade resembled a modern-dress western, with the Mongol hordes substituting for American Indians. Also noted was the fact that the film had been completed as a nine-reel "A" picture in 1938, undergoing drastic cutting and script revisions before it finally emerged in its present truncated 71-minute form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This barely-disguised portrait of singer Fanny Brice led to Brice's lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for defamation of character, a case which was settled out of court. Alice Faye plays Rose Sargent, a New York singer of the 1920s who falls for handsome, cocky wheeler-dealer Bart Clinton (Tyrone Power in a role patterned on Brice's troubled real-life paramour Nicky Arnstein). Rose's new romance is much to the dismay of her pal and former partner Ted Cotter (Al Jolson), who doesn't trust the slick, smooth-talking Bart. Eventually, Rose and Bart marry, but as the entertainment careers of Rose and Ted take off, Bart's tendency to get over his head in get-rich-quick schemes evolves into a bona fide criminal career. Rose finally makes the big time, becoming a popular star with the Ziegfeld Follies, and Bart skips town in order to preserve her reputation. However, Bart is nabbed by the authorities and sentenced to five years in jail. Despite the public scandal, Rose and Bart's devotion remained undiminished. Songs include the classics "California, Here I Come", "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye", "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and the perhaps unwise inclusion of "Funny Lady" Brice's signature song, "My Man". ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Three manicurists hope to become entertainers through the auspices of their wisecracking agent (Fred Allen). Sally (Alice Faye) is the smart one, Irene (Joan Davis) the funny one, and Mary (Marjorie Weaver) the cute-and-innocent one. The girls secure work in a Greenwich village nitery, where Sally falls for star singer Tony Martin. The threesome's career becomes stalled until Mary inherits an old ferry boat, which she converts into a floating nightclub. Among the highlights of Sally Irene and Mary is a jitterbug number by Joan Davis and supporting appearances by Jimmy Durante and Gypsy Rose Lee (billed under her real name, Louise Hovick). The film was based on a non-musical play by Eddie Dowling and Cyril Rood, previously filmed in 1925. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical, the only one singer/dancer Alice Faye, made for Universal, a Broadway producer is in a quandary when he discovers that the opening of his newest big production coincides with that of a major charity event. He despairs that the show will close after opening night until an ingenious writer suggests that he simply give the production snob-appeal by making the tickets nearly impossible to get by fabricating a story that they were all purchased by a flamboyant Texas oil baron who is totally besotted by the show's star, Faye. Unfortunately things go haywire when a young fellow suggests that the writer (who impersonates the oilman) sign to a lucrative advertising contract. Songs include: "You're a Sweetheart," "My Fine Feathered Friend," "Who Killed Maggie?" "Scraping the Toast" and "So It's Love." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide