Tin Pan Alley (1940)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Walter Lang

Writers:

Pamela Harris (story)
Robert Ellis (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

29 November 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Plot:

Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England...

Plot Keywords:

Song | Songwriter | Singer | Army | Show Business

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Cast

Alice Faye	...	Katie Blane
Betty Grable	...	Lily Blane
Jack Oakie	...	Harry Aloysius Calhoun
John Payne	...	Francis Aloysius 'Skeets' Harrigan
Allen Jenkins	...	Casey (janitor)
Esther Ralston	...	Nora Bayes
Fayard Nicholas	...	Dance Specialty (as The Nicholas Brothers)
Harold Nicholas	...	Dance Specialty (as The Nicholas Brothers)
Ben Carter	...	Black man in Skeets' corner
John Loder	...	Captain Reginald 'Reggie' Carstair
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Joe Codd, Composer
Fred Keating	...	Harvey Raymond
Billy Gilbert	...	The Sheik of Araby
Lillian Porter	...	Telephone Operator
Princess Vanessa Ammon	...	Specialty Dancer

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #6601)

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

"He'd Have to Get Under - Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile)" (music by Maurice Abrahams, lyrics by Grant Clarke and Edgar Leslie), performed by Alice Faye, Betty Grable and Jack Oakie, was cut from this film.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults (1997) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet

Great showpieces

"All good-lookin' like he is, there's no use in getting' yourself all messed up", a black boy ponders, when 'Skeets' Harrigan (John Payne) drops out of a promising boxing career to pursue his dreams of becoming a renowned Tin Pan Alley song publisher with his friend from the Midwest, Harry Calhoun (Jack Oakie). On their way to the top they meet the Blane sisters, Katie (Alice Faye) and Lily (Betty Grable). 'Skeets' and Katie fall in love, but he is adamantly focused on his career and when he gives a song meant for Katie to a famous musical star, she has had it and leaves for London with her sister. That is when World War I erupts ...

'Tin Pan Alley' has more charm than it has plot, and it's a delightful watch with charismatic actors. Faye and Grable are a wonderful pair of tap-dancing sisters, Oakie is genuinely funny as the befuddled average Joe playing at being a tough guy, and John Payne, a Robert Taylor look-alike, clearly in a role that must have been written for typical Faye co-star Tyrone Power, rises to the occasion and delivers his all, a perfect mix of athletic hunkiness and crooning abilities, not the easiest performance to pull of, as 'Skeets' is quite callous in the way he presses forward.

The film abounds with great music and showpieces, 'Honeysuckle Rose' in Faye's very nice rendition with a boy chorus, 'The Sheik of Araby' featuring glorious tap-dancing by The Nicholas Brothers, the rousing "America, I Love You", and the only song actually written for the film, Harry Warren's 'You Say the Sweetest Things (Baby)", utilized to the fullest in a clever montage.