| Alice Faye Collection 2 (Rose of Washington Square/Hollywood Cavalcade/The Great American Broadcast/Hello, Frisco, Hello/Four Jills in a Jeep) (Full Chk Gift) | 
 enlarge | Directors: Archie Mayo, Buster Keaton, Gregory Ratoff, H. Bruce Humberstone, Irving Cummings
Actors: Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.98
Buy New: $24.75
You Save: $25.23 (50%)
New (35) Used (6) from $23.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 9097
Format: Box Set, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 5
Running Time: 462
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 1.6
MPN: FOXD2252597D
UPC: 024543525974
EAN: 0024543525974
ASIN: B0018RKEQ4
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Ships Within 24 Hours - Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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Product Description
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 10/07/2008 Rating: Nr
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
It's Faye, Baby it's Faye..... November 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It seems there are two types of Alice Faye fans. There are those who prefer her output from the 1930's, and there are those who prefer the colorful Alice of the 1940's. I like both, but prefer my Alice in black and white. The first volume of Faye films were a mixed bag. Let's face it, "Lillian Russell" is not one of her shining hours, and "That Night in Rio" and "The Gang's All Here" wouldn't be on the top of my list for a first set of Faye films. Where is "You Can't Have Everything", "Sing, Baby, Sing", and "King of Burlesque"? This second collection is an improvement. "Rose of Washington Square" is not a very good film but it shows off Jolson doing what he did best (and that does NOT mean acting). The rest of the films are excellent Faye vehicles....but....what the hell is "4 Jills in a Jeep" doing here? It's a cheat, but hey, who am I to complain? The films look terrific and the extras are good. Buy this set and enjoy the languid tones and dreamy beauty of our Alice. She was a class act all the way.
How long has this been going on? November 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this on impulse - I knew nothing about Alice Faye and after viewing this collection of her at her peak (mostly wartime) I can't understand why. What else have I missed? She sings, she dances, she acts rings around most of her co-stars though the plots may be a little trite (handsome, macho hero getting all angry and sulky until you wish someone would punch out his lights until he sees sense) Alice alone is worth the price of entry. I also love the little tastes of contemporary history - the early days of radio or San Francisco booming in the 19th Century for instance. Colourful, tasteful, primarily entertaining but does not insult your intelligence.
There are better choices for a collection of Alice Faye movies November 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This collection is fine but there are other Alice Faye movies I'd rather have. I'm hoping the next collection will have movies earlier in her career.
 Wow! What a totally great surprise! November 4, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I didn't know until this set arrived that "Rose of Washington Square" had Al Jolson singing his greatest songs. I was bowled over. Having been brought up, so to speak, with Larry Park's fine work in "The Al Jolson Story," I knew exactly how Jolson sounds (Park's singing was lip-synched with Jolson recordings)and had some idea of the way he presented his songs. Some idea? To see Jolson doing his great songs in this film is a revelation. It makes the price of the entire set of films seem ridiculously low.
Jolson was considered the greatest entertainer of his era. I can now see why. Usually he stood still and kept his gestures to a minimum. But when he sings "Toot Toot Tootsie" he does an absolutely amazing, twisting tap dance in a style that's all his own, and all this while singing. Jolson is mesmerizing. His songs are presented the way he sang them, solo on the stage with no one else present. No dancers; they would have been superfluous because your eyes are on Jolson.
He performed in blackface. This today is very politically incorrect. Indeed, even in the 50s, when Larry Park did his great Jolson imitations, he only used blackface once, in the minstrel number "Rosie." (You eremember, "Rosie, You are my posie.") So I had no idea that Jolson performed in blackface all the time! I was an organizer for civil liberties in 1959, four years before Martin Luther King made his historic speech in Washington. So I have nothing to apologize for if I say that, in the 1920s and 1930s, music performed by blacks was taken out of the small clubs and put on the silver screen by Hollywood in one of the greatest cultural initiatives for racial equality that this country has ever known. (Remember how Harpo Marx went into a black shanty town and played a love song to the kids on his harp?) To be sure, Jolson used blackface because it increased the production values of his act. But he wouldn't have dared do it if it chased away patrons. The fact was that theatre goers were in no position to complain; they were totally entranced by Jolson's performances.
And now we can see them. Those that were cut out of "Rose of Washington Square" FORTUNATELY were included in the Extras. Larry Park didn't do "April Showers" or "Avalon," two of Jolson's most famous, but Al himself did them on the cutting-room floor along with this movie.
As for the rest of the set, it's all lagniappe. YOu can see a very young Don Ameche showing off his great talent in "Hollywood Calvacade." And then there is the star of the set, Alice Faye. I'm not one of her true fans; I go for the opposite type in female singers, say the peerless Arlene Dahl (knocking you out in "Three Little Words" (1950)). But Ms. Faye has a fabulous range; she can hit those contralto notes as good as, well, as good as Dorothy Lamour. She's a great actress, always in character. Tyrone Power, the mugger, wasn't so hot as Nick Arnstein (the story was based on Fanny Brice).
Al Jolson wasn't a very nice guy off-stage, though this movie makes him seem like a prince in real life. But look at the recent revelations about John Lennon. You have to take these performers for what they did on stage, no more, no less. (With the exception of Debbie Reynolds, a sweetheart on and off-stage.)
Classic, lightweight Hollywood musicals October 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A Hollywood star of the 1930s and '40s, blonde, button-nosed Alice Faye had a sort of plain-jane, girl-next-door appeal. She was a demure singer with a cheerful onscreen presence, and starred in numerous mid-level musicals, often surrounded by a large ensemble cast and numerous guest performers. This is the second set of DVD reissues of her work at the 20th Century Fox studios, and includes a few frothy films from the early wartime years of WWII. It's pleasant, highly formulaic material from an earlier, innocent era. The films include:
"Rose of Washington Square" (1939) A rags-to-riches showbiz pic with Faye starring as a struggling vaudeville star, co-starring old-timer Al Jolson and matinee idol Tyrone Power.
"Hollywood Cavalcade" (1939) a showbiz comedy with co-star Don Ameche. Pretty, richly colored cinematography compensates somewhat for the by-the-numbers B-movie script.
"The Great American Broadcast" (1941) is a highlight of this set. This frothy, energetic comedy is a loose-with-the-facts fictionalization of how radio became the great American medium of the early 20th Century. Robust, good-natured John Payne (sort of the Brendan Fraser of his time) and comic sidekick Jack Oakie meet up around 1920 as two down-and-out World War One vets who share an interest in the then-new radio technology. Payne's character come up with the idea that maybe they could use this newfangled radio stuff to bring entertainment to people all across the country... and then they're off! Of course, there's gotta be a girl, too and enter the ever-blonde girl next door, Alice Faye, as the gal they both love. But it ain't a love triangle -- nope! -- it's a square, because rich-cad tycoon Cesar Romero wants her too. This is a pleasantly fast-paced, lighthearted film, packed with better-than-usual performances from Ms. Faye (she and Payne duet quite nicely together). There are also great cameos from the Ink Spots vocal group, a fabulous (but all-too-brief) dance number from the Nicolas Brothers, and a nice, dewy-eyed version of how radio came to America. It's a fun old film... they really don't make 'em like this anymore!
"Hello Frisco Hello" (1943) reunites the Faye, Payne and Jack Oakie as yet another trio of star-crossed entertainers who brave the odds and wind up on top -- only to lose everything when fate turns against them. This time they're song-and-dance vaudevillers working in San Francisco's rough-and-tumble Barbary Coast. Payne plays a talented showman who builds an entertainment empire, only to lose everything when he marries the wrong woman -- a hoity-toity high-society dame with expensive tastes who dumps him once times get hard. Waiting in the wings is loyal Alice Faye, who the big lug should have married in the first place. Their buddy Jack is there to make sure things work out right. The musical numbers tend to be raucous, Dixieland-tinged floorstompers, although there's some nice barbershop singing, and Faye croons one of her best-known ballads, "You'll Never Know."
"Four Jills in a Jeep" (1944) is a star-studded, flimsily plotted showbiz revue set around the wartime USO circuit. There are several stars of yesteryear in here, including Dick Haymes, Carmen Miranda, Betty Grable, Jimmy Dorsey and his band, as well as Alice Faye, singing "You'll Never Know," which had become her signature song. This isn't actually an Alice Faye film, but it's still a nice slice of good, old-fashioned, B-grade Hollywood hokum -- the she's-so-obnoxious schtick with Marth Raye may wear thin, but it's still a pleasantly formulaic film.
All in all, this is a nice set of old-fashioned Hollywood corn... If you like movies from a more innocent time when the only goal in films was simply to entertain, this collection has some swell stuff to offer. (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film reviews)
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