On the Avenue

On the Avenue
DVD cover
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
William J. Scully (assistant)
William Seiter (fill-in)
Produced by Gene Markey
Darryl F. Zanuck
Written by Irving Berlin (story)
Eddie Cherkose
Samuel Pokrass
Screenplay by William M. Conselman
Gene Markey
Starring Dick Powell
Madeleine Carroll
Alice Faye
The Ritz Brothers
George Barbier
Music by Charles Maxwell
Cyril J. Mockridge
Arthur Lange
Herbert W. Spencer
Cinematography Lucien Andriot
Edited by Allen McNeil
Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Release date
 February 12, 1937 (1937-02-12)
Running time
 89 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1 million[1]
Box office $1.3 million[2]

On the Avenue is a 1937 American musical film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye, George Barbier, and The Ritz Brothers. Many of the songs in this film were composed by Irving Berlin.

Plot

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."

Cast

Partial sound track

  • I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (1937)
    • Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
    • Sung by Dick Powell and Alice Faye in the show[3]
  • This Year's Kisses (1937)
    • Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
    • Sung by Alice Faye with piano accompaniment at rehearsal
  • You're Laughing at Me (1937)
    • Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
    • Sung by Dick Powell with the studio orchestra
  • The Girl on the Police Gazette (1937)
    • Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
    • Sung by Dick Powell with a barbershop quartet
  • Cheek to Cheek (1935)
    • Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
    • Partially sung by Harry Ritz in the "He Ain't Got Rhythm" number
  • He Ain't Got Rhythm (1937)
    • Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
    • Performed by Alice Faye, The Ritz Brothers and chorus in the show

Accolades

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

References

  1. ↑ Solomon p 240
  2. ↑ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 217
  3. ↑ Ruth, Roy Del (1937-02-12), On the Avenue, retrieved 2016-10-11
  4. ↑ "AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-13.
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