On the Avenue

On the Avenue (Twentieth Century-Fox), like most musicals, has for a plot a clothesline upon which the producers can hang whatever suits their fancy. This time the line is pretty raveled, the appendages superb. Gary Blake (Dick Powell) is starring in his own extravaganza. One act is a burlesque of Mimi Caraway (Madelein'e Carroll), world's richest girl. Furious Mimi slaps Gary's face, then falls in love with him. He changes the offensive skit, but Mona Merrick (Alice Faye), his jealous leading lady, ad libs to make it worse than ever. Mimi then sets out to wreck the show and her romance, nearly succeeds.

Madeleine Carroll, whose chiseled sophistication makes her ideal for such stories as Lloyd's of London, is badly miscast, still manages to lend her ridiculous role dignity. Dick Powell gives another of his exalted-shoe-clerk performances. Alice Faye, in a part which requires only that she act natural, comes off best. What makes On the Avenue fun is not the antics of this troubled triangle, but the half-dozen high-spots sprinkled through the picture, usually with excellent accompanying melodies by Irving Berlin. Samples: Dick Powell hunting for The Girl on the Police Gazette, Madeleine Carroll and Dick Powell chivying a bean-wagon proprietor (Billy Gilbert), Alice Faye's deliciously cool contralto singing This Year's Kisses. Best moments of all, however, are contributed by the insane Ritz Brothers, who put on three zany acts: 1) The Arctic Explorers; 2) The Russian Band; and 3) The Lonely Professor, to the tune of He Ain't Got Rhythm (see cut).

Al, Harry and Jimmy Joachim were born in Newark, N. J. some 30 years ago, children of a hatter who presently moved to Brooklyn. Al became an extra at the old Astoria Studios, where the casting director did not like the name Joachim. Al glanced out a window, saw the Ritz Laundry, called himself that. He became moderately successful, lured his brothers into vaudeville. They launched a collegiate act in 1925, soon landed in Earl Carroll's Vanities. But collegiatism went stale and the trio had three lean years before they developed their present brand of satirical lunacy. It finally got them a job in a night club where Darryl Zanuck spotted them, hired them as an adjunct to the hilarious musical Sing Baby Sing. There, especially in a Jekyll & Hyde number, they displayed their peculiar talents to perfection--part eccentric dancing, part owlish mimicry, part brutality, part a musical patter of song, pun and gibberish. One in a Million followed, then On the Avenue, which should establish them as top-flight cinecomedians. They have a normal brother and sister named Gertrude and George. They like gambling, but not together because "that's bad luck." Al is the only married Ritz Brother. Jimmy hankers occasionally for a serious role but Harry confesses: "I can't play straight, I get too embarrassed. Right in the middle of a scene I get to thinking how ridiculous all this is, and I gag it."

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