Alice Faye's heyday was from the mid 1930s to the early 1940s when she introduced a myriad of standards in that mellowed, honeyed voice of hers but Fox never seemed to do the right thing by her - maybe she was just too nice. There was always a newer, flashier star she had to share the limelight with - not always but it sure seemed like it!! Initially she served part of her apprenticeship playing second fiddle to Fox's biggest star Shirley Temple, then in the 1940s Betty Grable was getting the studio excited. Even when she did do a movie "On the Avenue" and got to sing a swag of songs she made popular, Madeline Carroll was in it to be paired with Dick Powell and Faye had to be content with a "sugar daddy"!! and when she was coaxed into doing a movie, "Fallen Angel", that she felt would take her career in a new direction suddenly sultry Linda Darnell's part was built up at the expense of her own. "Hello Frisco, Hello" was also a comeback - she was happily married to Phil Harris and had given birth to a daughter the year before - but this time everything worked out in her favour. In the two years she had been absent from the screen she had lost none of her public appeal or the ability to put over a song.
With a medley of old time tunes the movie introduces the naughty, bawdy San Francisco of the early 1900s and a slick singing team from Sharkey's Saloon who sing "Lindy Lou", "Hello Frisco, Hello" and "You'll Never Know", hoping the act can push them into the big time but it only gets them fired. They start to put on free street shows ("Ragtime Cowboy Joe", "Sweet Cider Time"). Johnny (John Payne) is the wheeler dealer of the group and is able to put on a legitimate show due to "protection" money he is able to get from the saloons - they pay him and he keeps the street shows away from their premises.
If any film was enhanced by Technicolor it was this one. The richness of the decor and the brightness of the costumes will leave you agog!! It would take a whole review to describe Alice Faye's costumes - her "Grizzly Bear" outfit includes a red ostrich feather hat and matching muff. She may not give an Academy Award performance but she looks absolutely gorgeous in these turn of the century gowns. It can't be all fun and games and Lyn Bari, as Bernice Croft, makes a beautiful "other woman" from Nob Hill. This is the crowd Johnny aspires to and of course comes unstuck.
One of the highlights (for me) is Faye's "personality" rendition of "They Always Pick on Me". The songs (and beautiful costumes) keep coming - "Bedelia", "Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly" etc. Faye plays Trudy and Bernice's brother Ned takes a special interest in her, bringing a very interested English impresario to listen to her sing and whisk her off to the continent where she becomes the toast of London. Trudy returns to America to find all of Johnny's clubs closed - after marrying Bernice he turns his back on the Barbury Coast and pours all his money into bringing Grand Opera to San Francisco. Needless to say Trudy finds him down and out but with a little wheeling and dealing (involving Laird Cregar as a blustering prospector) he is put on his feet again for the encore of "Hello Frisco, Hello" and "You'll Never Know".
Jack Oakie had been making audiences laugh since talkies first came in - his career was given a boost when Chaplin gave him the role of "Il Duce" in "The Great Dictator" but this movie saw him almost at the end of his career.
With a medley of old time tunes the movie introduces the naughty, bawdy San Francisco of the early 1900s and a slick singing team from Sharkey's Saloon who sing "Lindy Lou", "Hello Frisco, Hello" and "You'll Never Know", hoping the act can push them into the big time but it only gets them fired. They start to put on free street shows ("Ragtime Cowboy Joe", "Sweet Cider Time"). Johnny (John Payne) is the wheeler dealer of the group and is able to put on a legitimate show due to "protection" money he is able to get from the saloons - they pay him and he keeps the street shows away from their premises.
If any film was enhanced by Technicolor it was this one. The richness of the decor and the brightness of the costumes will leave you agog!! It would take a whole review to describe Alice Faye's costumes - her "Grizzly Bear" outfit includes a red ostrich feather hat and matching muff. She may not give an Academy Award performance but she looks absolutely gorgeous in these turn of the century gowns. It can't be all fun and games and Lyn Bari, as Bernice Croft, makes a beautiful "other woman" from Nob Hill. This is the crowd Johnny aspires to and of course comes unstuck.
One of the highlights (for me) is Faye's "personality" rendition of "They Always Pick on Me". The songs (and beautiful costumes) keep coming - "Bedelia", "Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly" etc. Faye plays Trudy and Bernice's brother Ned takes a special interest in her, bringing a very interested English impresario to listen to her sing and whisk her off to the continent where she becomes the toast of London. Trudy returns to America to find all of Johnny's clubs closed - after marrying Bernice he turns his back on the Barbury Coast and pours all his money into bringing Grand Opera to San Francisco. Needless to say Trudy finds him down and out but with a little wheeling and dealing (involving Laird Cregar as a blustering prospector) he is put on his feet again for the encore of "Hello Frisco, Hello" and "You'll Never Know".
Jack Oakie had been making audiences laugh since talkies first came in - his career was given a boost when Chaplin gave him the role of "Il Duce" in "The Great Dictator" but this movie saw him almost at the end of his career.