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| On the Avenue | 
 enlarge | Director: Roy Del Ruth
Actors: Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye, Al Ritz, Harry Ritz
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $6.23
You Save: $8.75 (58%)
New (26) Used (6) from $6.22
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 15271
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 89
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.7
MPN: 2241148
UPC: 024543411475
EAN: 0024543411475
ASIN: B0019APR6M
Theatrical Release Date: February 12, 1937
Release Date: October 7, 2008 (New: This Week)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - FACTORY SEALED product! GUARANTEED SATISFACTION! We ship fast, from multiple locations.
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Product Description
In this song-packed Irving Berlin musical actress Mona Merrick (Alice Faye) infuriates an heiress (Madeleine Carroll) by savagely portraying her in a hit play. When the show's producer (Dick Powell) begins a love affair with the heiress jealous Mona makes her satirical performance even more scathing setting off fireworks between the new couple.System Requirements:Running Time: 89 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 024543411475 Manufacturer No: 2241148
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
The Fox Musicals Were Bright June 26, 2008
I always felt that 20th Century Fox put out the best story/music combination in the mid 1930s to early 1940s. There is a light hearted bounciness to the songs and these Fox musicals are, for me, much preferred to the overdone, sluggish MGM musicals. WB was great too but had that harsh urban twist to them which is by no means a knock to that studio. I love them. The 20th musicals, with Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Jack Haley, Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, John Payne, Jack Oakie, display in these performers, an infectious light-hearted quality. Too bad Dick Powell couldn't have been part of this group after 1935; he would have fit right in with his high likeability factor. Both of Dick Powell's loan outs to Fox, "On the Avenue," along with the forgotten but terrific "Thanks a Million," from 1935, are 2 of his very best films from this era. I hope this latter title comes to dvd as well.
With Fame Comes Laughter March 18, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
One the Avenue is a fun musical comedy with an excellent cast. Gary Blake (Dick Powell) writes and performs in a show that spoofs a well-known family; the family gets upset and plans to sue though they have no grounds on which to do so. The young woman of the household (Madeleine Carroll) takes the writer out to sway his opinion and the two fall for each other. Blake plans to retract the harsher parts of the skit, but his jealous co-star (Alice Faye) turns it into an even worse commentary.
Powell is excellent here, more mature than in his juvenile roles in the Busby Berkeley musicals, more confident and very attractive. He has lots of chemistry with the beautiful Carroll. Faye adds to the film with her gorgeous creamy voice and fun dancing. The Ritz Brothers provide a brash, obnoxious humor to the screen, but they fit their roles well. Stepin Fetchit also makes an appearance as a dim-witted stagehand.
The story is very well done and the romantic relationship is appropriately fleshed out. The musical numbers are highly enjoyable and truly supplement an already great film.
 Excellent package of vintage musical October 3, 2005
"On the Avenue", released early in 1937, was at the the time the most ambitious musical comedy which the fledgling 20th Century Fox had produced. Borrowing very popular Dick Powell from Warner Brothers, employing prestigious Irving Berlin to write the score and showcasing their own special Alice Faye, the film was a box office smash.
The pluses are obvious - a funny almost screwball screenplay, an excellent supporting cast including Walter Catlett as a harried producer, Cora Witherspoon as an excentric aunt and the Ritz Brothers, well contained and entertaining instead of irritating. Madelaine Carroll is perfectly cast as the richest girl in the world. Both Faye and Powell are in great voice. It is worth the film just to see Faye trucking to "Slumming on Park Avenue", Harry Ritz doing a parody of Faye in that number and Faye singing in her creamy contralto "This Year's Kisses" in mesmerising closeup. The film has a rollicking jolly mood which is infectious.
The DVD has been beautifully packaged. The print has been restored and is in excellent shape. There is a bright, colourful insert with some good information about the film's production, a deleted scene of the Ritz Brothers which borders on bad taste and some production stills and advertising.
Best of all, there is the first part of a documentary on Alice Faye in which her charming daughters appear. The documentary traces Faye's life until her retirement from films but you will have to purchase another Faye title to get the rest of it. Mile Kreuger provides an outstanding commentary too. Kreuger has really excellent delivery with superb diction and he is a pleasure to listen to. He also has the ability to balance the information provided nicely. He is never tedious.
This is a very good package of an excellent vintage musical and one of the best of Alice Faye's many hits.
One of Fox's best musicals January 18, 2003
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Fox's musicals haven't weathered so well as have the products of MGM and Warner Brothers: their performers were so singular that they've been forgotten over the years or are treated (as in the case of Carmen Miranda) largely as kitsch. But ON THE AVENUE shows beautifully what Fox could do exceptionally well in the musical format when they had all the right elements together--in this case, a superb Irving Berlin score.The queen of Fox musicals was Alice Faye, an extremely distinctive performer with a gorgeously lush contralto voice much like Karen Carpenter's. With her heavy eyelids and great open smile she always looked like she was smiling through tears, and no one was better at singing a rueful ballad, like this film's famous "This Year's Kisses," one of Berlin's rare sad numbers. Faye's part in this is a bit underwritten, and though Dick Powell is the male lead (at this point moving away from the juvenile twerp he played in Warners musicals to an authentic and convincing leading actor he would become in films noir--and here in superb voice), he must contend with the beautiful but forever irritating Madeleine Carroll as his aristocratic love interest. The film is redeemed, though, by the Ritz Brothers, another great Fox musical staple. All but forgotten today, the Ritzes were a kind of cross between the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges, and they could also sing well and dance even better. Their manic energies are not to everyone's tastes, but to many people (myself included) they're hilarious, and the surprisingly virile Harry Ritz is hysterical in his parody of Faye during the "Let's Go Slumming" number.
A Great Musical August 16, 2001
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I believe that in the 1930s, Irving Berlin was at his creative best, and he really hit his stride writing the music and lyrics to "On The Avenue". All of the songs are great with the ballad "This Year's Kisses" being the most famous. Some of the other great songs include:"I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm","Slumming On Park Avenue", and "You're Laughing At Me". Irving Berlin definitely was a musical genuis.Dick Powell and Alice Faye should of been paired more often, because they definitely had chemistry on the screen. However, surprisingly Alice takes backstage to Madeline Carroll who is the gal that gets Dick Powell in the end. Dick Powell was great as the level-headed producer and star who falls in a heap over a rich socialite. Madeline Carroll was superb as the socialite who hates Powell in the beginning, but grows to love him in the long run. Alice Faye is absolutely beautiful as the girl-next-door that doesn't get the man. The cast is also rounded out by a truly funny appearance by Billy Gilbert as a diner owner/cook. The only bad point of the movie, and it is an annoying point at that is the appearance of the Ritz Brothers. It may be a personal thing, but I think they are the least funny of all of the comedy teams, and their corny moments in "On The Avenue" definitely bring down the movie, but only slightly. If you are looking for a fell good musical of the 1930s, look no further. "On The Avenue" is definitely up your alley...
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