Main Cast: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley
Release Year: 1938
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
His Aunt Sophie (Helen Westley) and his teacher Professor Heinrich (Jean Hersholt) are sure that Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) will be a famous classical violinist, but Roger's more interested in popular music. He and his friend, pianist Charlie (Don Ameche), audition at a saloon in San Francisco's Barbary Coast, using sheet music left by singer Stella Kirby (Alice Faye), which had been sent to her by a friend in New York, Irving Berlin. The number, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," proves to be a sensation, and Stella goes along with Charlie's plea to sing with the band, which soon becomes famous for its ragtime numbers. Charlie has fallen in love with Stella by the time they open at the Cliff House, but he soon realizes that she and Roger are in love. Stella is invited to New York by a famous producer, but Roger's against this, and angrily fires her, so Charlie quits, too. When Roger returns from World War I, he meets Stella, only to learn she and Charlie have been married for a year. Another year passes, and Charlie and Davey have formed a new band with Jerry Allen (Ethel Merman) as their lead singer. Charlie knows Stella still loves Roger, so he divorces her, but Roger sails for Europe with the new band. Back in New York, Roger is set for a major concert in swing at Carnegie Hall. Charlie tells Roger about the divorce, and that Stella still loves him. Unable to get a ticket, Stella listens to the concert in a cab. Explaining that he is playing it for one particular person, Roger and his band perform "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as their encore, bringing Stella into the theater, where she's reconciled with Roger. He brings her onstage to perform the number with his band. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
Review
Alexander's Ragtime Band was the subject of some mild ridicule in its day from critics who commented that, despite the fact that the time frame of the film covers a couple of decades, the stars never aged. But Alexander doesn't pretend to be realistic; it's a delightful little morsel of a film that's the cinematic equivalent of comfort food. And aside from the slightness of the script -- its roundabout love triangle is perfunctory, if effective -- there's little to complain about. There's a bountiful two dozen Irving Berlin songs to ease viewers over the bumpy patches, and not a clunker in the bunch. How can there be when they include the likes of such classics as the sorrowful "Remember," the joyous "Blue Skies," the infectious "Easter Parade," and the rousing "Heat Wave?" This is a score that can stand on its own; that it has two such powerful performers as Alice Faye and Ethel Merman to interpret many of them is a bonus. This is not to overlook Jack Haley and Don Ameche, who do more than respectable jobs, but their numbers simply pale in comparison with Merman's jivey "Pack Up Your Sins" or Faye's sinuous "Now It Can Be Told." The cast is also up to par in the dialogue scenes, even if Tyrone Power is a slightly behind the rest of the leads. Alexander doesn't aim high enough to be one of the screen's great musicals, but it's bright, lively fun. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
The story strings together 28 Irving Berlin songs. Old songs were combined with new ones written especially for the film, as Berlin was also to do with the motion pictures Holiday Inn, Blue Skies, and White Christmas. Alexander's Ragtime Band was released in 1938, but was set in the World War I era (1914 - 1918). As a result, there were some anomalies; for example, "Heat Wave", sung by Ethel Merman, and "Easter Parade" were not written until 1933.
One of the top hits of the year, it established Power, Faye, and Ameche as top Hollywood superstars. So important was this film to Twentieth Century Fox that all of its future musicals were compared to this one.
