Rating : - Alice gets a sister
And what a sister! Alice Faye and Betty Grable were made for each other as a musical comedy act, together or separately in given scenes. Alice, as the dominant sister, got most of the good single numbers, but Betty got a chance to show her stuff with "honeysuckle rose". I can't believe they were never again paired(although they were supposed to be, in "The Dolly Sisters" But, it was too late, as Alice decided to retire just then). John Payne and Jack Oakie were another great buddy pair, Oakie providing a perfect comedic balance to Payne's serious demeanor as a pair of struggling tunesmiths. Oakie does an impromptu rendition of a classic George M. Cohan war moral booster, composed about the time the story takes place, at the beginning of WWI. This duo would appear in several other Faye films, either separately or together. Payne would also serve as a usually successful rival for Betty's heart in several other films. Too bad Oakie was never considered romantic material for the leading ladies. He was certainly charming enough. He could have teamed up with Betty while Payne was romancing or sulking with Alice. The Nicholas brothers were yet another talented pair, though they only appeared in their dance spectacular in "The Sheik of Araby" extravaganza. Breaking the color barrier, they appeared in a number of top musicals of this era, including "Sun Valley Serenade" and the all African American cast in "Stormy Weather", where they performed perhaps their most famous routine. Rotund veteran comedian Billy Gilbert seemed bored with his harem and other diversions until Alice and Betty appeared in his harem, when he joined them in a memorable song and dance rendition of the title song from "The Sheik of Araby" scene. All in all, a great vaudevillian mix of song and dance, comedy and romantic drama. My main regret is that this wasn't filmed in technicolor. Few films were then, and the studios didn't always pick the right ones for this luxury treatment. It's about time a DVD version of this classic musical comedy was made available, and I dare not hope for a colorized version!