JohnHowardReid Copyright 12 May 1939 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 5 May 1939. U.S. release: 5 May 1939. U.K. release: July 1939. Australian release: 10 August 1939. 7,766 feet. 86 minutes. (Available on an excellent Fox DVD).SYNOPSIS: Singer falls for a no-good gambler. NOTES: Originally Faye sang "I'll See You In My Dreams" in a New York supper club sequence. Other deleted songs were "Avalon" and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows". Fanny Brice sued the studio for damages. The matter was settled out of court. Remade in 1968 as Funny Girl.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Difficult. Based on the career of Fanny Brice (and also partly on that of Al Jolson himself), so I would say suitable for all.COMMENT: If Love Me Tonight is one of my favorite musical comedies, Rose of Washington Square is certainly one of my top choices for musical drama. Not that there is no comedy in this movie. Far from it. In fact Hobart Cavanaugh contributes the portrayal of his career as the unwitting if ultimately very willing stooge. And Jolson plays the scenes with Cavanaugh with such panache, it's hard to realize his screen career was virtually over. Of course he also has some of his trademark songs and these he puts over with such style, Jolie is worth the price of admission alone. But despite his huge contribution to the movie's overall appeal, Jolson is only the support. It's Alice Faye's movie. And what a great performance she gives! And boy, does she knock over those songs! Power is magnetic too, giving a far more accurate and far more arresting interpretation of Nicky Arnstein than the bland and disappointingly colorless Omar Sharif. Power is a confidence man with persuasively shallow charm. Ideally cast. This and Nightmare Alley are Power at his absolute best.Every other player in Rose is as forcefully cast from William Frawley's fix-it agent through Ben Welden's sarcastically menacing Toby and Charles Wilson's nemesis of a flatfoot to Harry Hayden's frightened victim ("I've got a gun!"). Armed with Nunnally Johnson's scintillating dialogue and taking every advantage of their dramatic opportunities, many of these character people likewise hand out some of the most memorable cameos of their lives. Welden, for example, must have been cast in hundreds of movies, but this is his finest hour ("I've got to hand it to you, Clinton...")Johnson's script is a model of fine screen writing. Not only has he told the Fanny Brice-Nicky Arnstein story in a powerfully fast-paced 86 minutes (Funny Girl took a ponderous 155 to cover the same ground), but he has fleshed it out with an extraordinarily large gallery of fascinating subsidiary characters as well (aside from the swamped Streisand and soggy Sharif, I don't remember any other people in Funny Girl at all). And in addition to these miracles of arresting narrative construction, Johnson has still allowed plenty of time for some terrific standards from both Jolson and Faye, both of whom are in tip-top voice.Director Gregory Ratoff has risen nobly to the occasion. I've remarked before in Hollywood Classics that Ratoff's directorial abilities seemed to swing violently yet unaccountably from the extremely banal to the inventively brilliant from one film to another. Fortunately, Rose finds him at his most stylishly accomplished. Not only has he drawn winning performances from his players, but he reinforces the drama and comedy in Johnson's script by inspired camera placements and deft cutting. Or maybe it's ace cinematographer Karl Freund's inspired camera placements and Louis Leoffler's smooth, forceful cutting. In any case, Freund's masterful lighting of course is a major asset. And I loved the sets and costumes. Production values are lavish — and there's that wonderful 20th Century-Fox sound!

vincentlynch-moonoi It's almost as if you have two separate movies here. There's Rose of Washington Square and her love affair...and there's Al Jolson reaching for the top of Broadway. The two stories do come together, but they almost seem like separate plots.The great thing about this film is that you see Al Jolson singing a few of his greatest hits...although he's not playing himself...sort of. The good news is that Jolson is in particularly fine voice here. More mellow and with a lower key than his early 78s, but clearer and purer than the Jolson on his recordings of a decade later, around the time of his bio-pics. The bad news is, ironically, that the father of sound films is a pretty stiff and lousy actor. Twentieth Century Fox thought so, too. This was his last starring role! And then you have the romance and drama between a Fanny Brice-like character and a Nicky Arnstein-like character. A coincidence? No, Fox just changed the names, and Brice sued them...and settled. But it's all very interesting. I can't say that Alice Faye had the best songs in this film, but she does do "My Man". If there's a problem here with this film it's that you have its other star (Tyrone Power) playing the bad guy...and we so want to like Tyrone Power.There was definitely screen chemistry between Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, but, unfortunately, their two other pairings -- "In Old Chicago" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band" -- are simply more compelling films.This is a film supremely worth watching for the singing performances of Al Jolson; too bad his acting wasn't as good! The drama of Rose...it's okay. Recommended, but it may not end up on your DVD shelf...unless Jolson tempts you!

gkeith_1 Tyrone. So good to look at. I feel that he is much more handsome in this part than the actor who played the real Nicky in the Funny G. movie (also shown tonight). No offense meant, buttttttt Tyrone was hot-hot-hot. He would make your heart melt. Both actors did good jobs as scoundrels, however.Tyrone, I hate to see you in these bad-guy/heel roles. You are much cuter in sympathetic roles, ala "Alexander's Ragtime Band".Alice. Excellent singer. Heartfelt emotions. Head-over-heels (her character) over Bart. Maybe she should have known better, but who could ever resist Tyrone? I would not have been able to, if I had been around in those days.Jolson. So wonderful to see him, and hear him perform his famous standards. The drunk in the balcony was an interesting addition to his (Ted's) act.Frawley. He of "I Love Lucy". It was good to see him. I think he played a police detective in yet another movie, the name of which escapes me.Viva the musicals.10/10

GManfred This is an excellent movie musical from the 20th Fox studio, which made excellent movie musicals. Fox made all those great musicals with John Payne and Alice Faye, until she got supplanted by Betty Grable. It's all here - storyline, music, production values and a Who's-Who cast of memorable character actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood."Rose" is actually a revue with only one or two songs written for the movie; "I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak" is one and is the best song in the picture. The rest are songs from pre and post WW1 and are old standards - there are 20 songs in all. Then there is the Cigarette Dance which contains some trick photography and is very clever indeed.It stars Tyrone Power and Alice Faye who handle acting chores, but the singing duties belong to Al Jolson, who at one time was considered the best entertainer of the 20th century on either coast. He comes alive when he sings his signature numbers but has a very limited acting range. This picture is seldom seen today because, for reasons rooted in the early part of the last century, Jolson sang in blackface. Apparently this worked for him but the film is no longer in the good graces of the PC crowd and those intimidated by them. The plot is based (loosely) on Fanny Brice and her husband/problem child Nicky Arnstein. As we know too well, Hollywood feels fiction is stranger than truth and punches up many stories that were good to begin with. Plus, they were true, and what fun is that.Do yourself a favor; if you can find this picture watch it and see how Hollywood used to do it in the good old days. As I stated in the summary, that's entertainment in the purest sense of the term. I gave it a well-deserved rating of 8.