Rose of Washington Square **** (1939, Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Al Jolson, William Frawley, Joyce Compton) – Classic Movie Review 9726

Director Gregory Ratoff’s 1939 black and white musical Rose of Washington Square stars Alice Faye, who grabs one of her best chances as Rose Sargent, a 1920s New York singer trying to perform a difficult balancing act between her career and her ne’er-do-well con man husband Barton Dewitt Clinton (Tyrone Power).

Faye hits the heights as a Broadway star in the Ziegfeld Follies, singing ‘My Man’, just as Power is on his way to jail. Al Jolson also stars as Ted Cotter, with William Frawley as talent agent Harry Long and Joyce Compton as Peggy. All five are on very good form.

Faye and Al Jolson memorably belt out a cornucopia of smashing old songs, plus one new tune in Gordon and Revel’s ‘I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak’ (music by Harry Revel, lyrics by Mack Gordon). Jolson’s numbers include ‘Mammy’, ‘California Here I Come’, ‘Pretty Baby’, ‘Dixie Melody’, ‘Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye’.

The story is close to the true story of Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein. ‘My Man’ was Brice’s signature number. Fanny Brice sued 20th Century Fox claiming the film defamed her in an unacknowledged life story, and they settled out of court for $25,000, though admittedly the film is not called Fanny of Washington Square. Fox benefited from the lawsuit publicity and the film became the highest grossing musical of 1939.

It runs only 86 minutes. Various songs were cut from the film. ‘I’m Always Chasing Rainbows’ and ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’, performed by Alice Faye were cut, but they still exist, and they cut out Al Jolson singing ‘April Showers’ and ‘Avalon’, but they are on the DVD.

Also in the cast are Hobart Cavanaugh, E E Clive, Moroni Olsen, Louis Prima, Horace McMahon [Horace MacMahon], Charles C Wilson, Hal K Dawson, Paul E Burns, Ben Welden, and Paul Stanton.

Rose of Washington Square is directed by Gregory Ratoff, runs 86 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Nunnally Johnson (screenplay), based on a story by John Francis Larkin and Jerry Horwin, is shot in black and white by Karl Freund, is produced by Nunnally Johnson, is scored by Louis Silvers, and is designed by Richard Day and Rudolph Sternad.

Alice Faye (1915–1998).

 © Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9726

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