Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche star in this movie musical, which was nominated for six Oscars at the time, including Best Picture, winning one for Best Music Score. Tyrone has been studying and playing classical music, so when mother hears of him taking up this old ragtime music, she doesn't speak to him. But Tyrone as Roger has had an inner longing for this type of expression. He and his band, which includes Don Ameche, tries to find a job at a restaurant that has floor shows. Of course, Alice Faye is there, trying to get her music heard, played and sold. When they need something to play for an audition, her music is swiped by their bartender friend. They start to play and she fumes. "My music." So, she chimes in, with "Come on and hear, Come on and hear Alexander's ragtime band...." She is a sensation. Or are they? They get the job, but as a package deal, not separately. Neither Alice nor Ty are happy about it, as they fight like a rooster and hen. And, Don Ameche took to her right away. Get the picture! The movie itself is very well made and makes for entertaining melodramatic escapism. While this is certainly more than just a musical, with its three-dimensional characters, the songs are superlative. There were a lot of great songwriters in the early 20th century, like the Gershwins, Mercer, and others. And, they all had their own style. But no one could write 'em like Irving Berlin. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is one example of how thrilling his songs were. If you've never seen this film, you must see it. It has gotten somewhat overshadowed by "Singin' in the Rain" and other more well-known major movie musicals, but this is an essential to musicals and is time well-spent with good actors.

One composer stands above the rest in his plethora of famous songs still sung today. Mr. Irving Berlin's tunes are sung at Christmas, Easter, baseball games, Fourth of July ceremonies and award shows. His Broadway book shows are few, but even though the voice has been silenced, the melody still lingers on. Half a dozen movies catalog his various hits, and this is the best. It covers the early 20th Century through pre-World War II, and even though the stars never age throughout, they are a metaphor for each song of Berlin's that do not age, either.The handsome Tyrone Power is the leader of a ragtime band, and Alice Faye is the rough-and-tough broad who becomes their star before moving onto Broadway where as a lady, she is the biggest diva on the boards. After a mistake of a marriage to their pal Don Ameche, she strikes out on her own while Power goes onto entertaining in World War I in Berlin's real Broadway revue "Yip Yip Yaphank", a pre-cursor to "This is the Army". While Berlin sang that song's "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" in the movie version of his second all-soldier revue, it is Jack Haley (The Tin Man) who sings it here.Power's success as a ragtime band leader continues when he brings on the brassy but lovely Ethel Merman to replace Faye, and briefly considers replacing her as the woman he loves. Merman's character, a true "good egg", realizes she can never truly have his love, and gracefully bows out while continuing to sing many of Berlin's more obscure hits.Everybody sings and shines in the most acclaimed Fox musical of the 1930's, and Faye expresses the two sides of her Fox characterization-the Harlow like bombshell and the dignified lady in which she ended her film career with. Power and Ameche are romantic, Merman sings up a storm, and Haley clowns. Ethel, the future Queen of Broadway, photographs oddly at times, but once she sings and dances, her personality defies the camera and she becomes not only beautiful but sexy as well with her amazing legs in several of the big production numbers.It's not only the performers who share the star here. Berlin's songs are among his best, whether familiar gems as "Heat Wave" or "Blue Skies" or obscure finds like "My Walking Stick". In smaller roles, Helen Westley, Jean Hersholt and John Carradine offer memorable characterizations. Anybody wanting to familiarize themselves with the great American Songbook should start off by watching this movie. Then, you will understand one great American contribution to this crazy world of ours.

Who first sang "Easter Parade" in the movies? Not Astaire and Garland(in '48), not Bing(in '42). Don Ameche sings it in this film, although it was first sung on stage in 1933. Although Berlin's best known musical extravaganzas were produced by MGM, Fox did 3, starting with this B&W one, all featuring Ethel Merman, among others. The other two("Call Me Madam" and "There's No Business Like Show Business") were made about 15 years after this. Although these later films were shot in color, and often had much more elaborate sets, by then Merman's singing voice had became more harsh and sometimes with excessive vibrato, and she had gained a few lbs. For example, compare Merman's brief rendition of "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" in the present film with her lavish rendition in "There's No Business..". Unfortunately, this latter Merman is the only one many people have been exposed to, thus they wonder why composers and many theater and film goers raved about her singing and acting. In the present film, we can see why. Although Alice Faye was the female star of this film, and gets most of the better singing roles, several of Merman's numbers had the most elaborate sets, probably reflecting her more stage-oriented style.Her major numbers were "Pack Up Your Sins and Go To The Devil", "Blue Skies", "My Walking Stick", "Everybody Step" and "Heat Wave". Marilyn Monroe famously did a very sensuous version of the latter in "There's No Business..." No way would the film censors of 1938 have passed that performance! Hence, we have Merman's relatively plain and simple, if spirited, version. Merman would get to do several of Faye's songs in either of her '50s Berlin films. You can compare Faye's rendition of "The International Rag" with Merman's in "Call Me Madam". Faye's "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves Alabam" was redone twice in "There's No Business..", as well as in "Easter Parade". In these performances, it was a man-woman duet, with a more elaborate stage set. Finally, the title song, although sung twice by Faye, actually consumed much more time in "There's No Business..", with much more elaborate multiple stagings, and in color.This film firmly established the typical Fox musical formula for the early '40s, with strong emphasis on 2 or 3 featured female singers/dancers/ comediennes. Along with the previous "King of Burlesque", this film also established the typical melodrama plot for most future Fox and many MGM musicals of the '40s and early '50s: romantic and professional ups and downs between the stars, with often a late switcheroo as to who ends up with whom, or a last minute reunion between two former lovers, who had separated for professsional or wartime reasons. For example, compare the plot of this film with that of the MGM "For Me and My Gal" of a few years later.The 3 major stars, Power, Ameche, and Faye were reunited after their popular union the previous year in "In Old Chicago". Unfortunately, the handsome and popular Power had zero musical talent, thus is relegated to faking violin playing or endlessly waving a baton in front of an orchestra, as Alexander. Like quite a few films of the '30s and early '40s, the story begins in a barbary coast dive in San Francisco, with a singer or show girl and the dive owner as the main characters. For example, compare the present story with MGM's "San Francisco" of the previous year, or the later Faye-starring "Hello, Frisco, Hello". Besides Merman, Jack Haley, Wally Vernon, Dixie Dunbar, and Chick Chandler were featured in a couple of songs and/or dances. Haley would play "'The Tin Man' in "The Wizard of Oz" the following year, but he otherwise failed to become a big star. Faye would continue as the female lead in a number of Fox musicals in the early '40s, with more musically inclined John Payne replacing Power, or with Ameche again. Carmin Miranda was enticed from Brazil to often play Merman's role as the alternative brassy female singer/dancer/comedienne. It was only after Fox's primary and secondary female musical stars had been released or retired that Merman was brought back, this time as the lead female. For a brief discussion of the careers of many of the other secondary players, check out the very good commentary on the current DVD release.To get a better appreciation of the strictness of the film moral codes at this time, it was very unusual for the subject of divorce to be allowed. Thus, the divorce between Faye's and Ameche's characters, while amiable, barely squeaked by the censors.This film lacks any top dancing specialist or lavish dancing choruses or sets of the Busby Berkely style. It also has limited comedic content, and many of the better songs were later filmed more lavishly and in color. Nonetheless, it's rather a fun time, with good chemistry between the actors. Only, it's too bad Faye's character spends so much time being sad or belligerent, while Merman is always smiling and upbeat.

I thought this movie started out with a bang, with rousing ragtime numbers, but then drifted into dull ballads and slower music. I kept on wondering what happened to the peppy ragtime! And surely the songs played after the boys returned from WWI were not from the 1920s? Didn't sound like it.The story got a bit dull after the promising beginning, but the stars Powers, Faye, Ameche, and Haley were all entertaining in their ways and great to look at.Also, I was distracted by the inappropriate costumes, which again started out correct for the turn of the century, but for some mysterious reason became 1930s fashion after WWI. The skirts were too short, the jackets had shoulder pads and nipped in waists, and the women's hairstyles and hats were totally wrong for the 1920s. I kept wondering how many years had passed! All in all, a good movie, but could have been better in some ways.