DVD Review King of Burlesque DVD Review (1 Viewer)

King of Burlesque DVD Review

After Warner’s 42^nd Street proved such a surprise hit in 1933, the musical floodgates opened once again at the various studios who had sworn off musicals for the previous three years. Now, everyone was jumping on the backstage musical bandwagon, and Fox Pictures was no different mounting King of Burlesque for Oscar-winner Warner Baxter and its rising singing star Alice Faye. With a snappy score, some nifty comic foolishness, and a decent plot on which to hang the song and dance numbers, King of Burlesque proved a popular hit (and with a plot 20^th Century Fox would use again less than a decade later for Hello, Frisco, Hello also starring Alice Faye).

Studio: Fox

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 480I/MPEG-2

Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1

Audio: English 2.0 DD

Subtitles: None

Rating: Not Rated

Run Time: 1 Hr. 29 Min.

Package Includes: DVD

Amaray case

Disc Type: DVD-R

Region: 1

Release Date: 12/09/2014

MSRP: $19.98

The Production Rating: 3.5/5

Stage producer Kerry Bolton (Warner Baxter) has the Midas touch when it comes to mounting shows for the populace. Rising from the Bowery burlesque to big-time Broadway revues, he produces a succession of popular hits choreographed and starring gal pal Patricia Doran (Alice Faye). But Bolton has always been self-conscious about his lack of class and breeding, and when he meets and flips for penniless society matron Rosalind Cleve (Mona Barrie), he allows himself to be so dazzled by her social bearing that he enters a business-like marital arrangement with her as she spends his millions, gives him ridiculous advice on classy shows to mount (which account for three successive bombs), and carries on secretly with her lover tenor Stanley Drake (Charles Quigley). Bolton is down on his heels, and it’s up to friends Joe Cooney (Jack Oakie) and Pat Doran to put him back on his feet.Gene Markey and Harry Tugend contribute a serviceable screenplay for the musical even if the scenario of love blinding a once savvy man into making absurd choices that put his fortune and the employment of his friends in jeopardy is old enough to be growing its own whiskers by this point. The snappy score by Jimmy McHugh and Ted Koehler, however, is a tremendous solace to the predictable dramatics. Beginning with the Bowery burlesque number “Whose Big Baby Are You?” which Faye initially sings and then turns over to a snappy chorus line of cuties, there isn’t a weak song in the bunch, and a couple are really wonderful especially “Shooting High” which gets several airings and serves as the big finale with Faye once again selling the song to the skies and tap dancing by bootblack youngster Gareth Joplin. The big show that puts Bolton back on his feet serves as the climactic sequence of the picture with a succession of numbers performed cleverly by characters who through the earlier parts of the movie were ordinary folks who continually begged Bolton and his producing partner Joe Cooney (Jack Oakie) for a chance to show what they could do. So, stagehand Kenny Baker gets to show off his Irish tenor in “Lovely Lady” while elevator operator Fats Waller and switchboard operator Dixie Dunbar get to strut their stuff with “Fingers Crossed” in Oscar-nominated production numbers staged by Sammy Lee. Sidney Lanfield handles it all smoothly and professionally never letting the clichés inherent in the broken-hearted gal pal/clueless employer scenario become too overwhelming.Alice Faye’s physical appearance hadn’t quite transitioned yet to a more natural look, so she still sports the extreme platinum blonde hair and pencil-shaved eyebrows from early in her movie career, and she’s singing higher in her range here than she would even a couple of years later, but she’s still a pleasing and positive presence in the movie. Warner Baxter’s fall from grace from hotshot producer to skid row has-been allows him some good dramatic moments even when one would think his kind of street smarts would be able to sidestep his mistakes with his scheming amour played haughtily and sometimes stiffly by Mona Barrie. Jack Oakie steals all of his scenes as the film’s comedy relief, pestered by one and all to get into show business and stalked by a persistent girl friend (Arline Judge) who won’t take “no” for an answer. Gregory Ratoff has some scene-stealing scenes of his own late in the movie as the faux Russian millionaire who pretends to be backing the new show, and the movie allows great musical star turns for Dixie Dunbar, Fats Waller, Nick Long Jr., Kenny Baker, and Gareth Joplin. Yes, that’s Keye Luke in a scene or two as a houseboy.

Video Rating: 3/5 3D Rating: NA

The film is presented in its theatrical 1.37:1 aspect ratio. Sharpness is one of the transfer’s strongest elements. Age-related problems like dirt, damage, scratches, and debris do crop up on a regular basis, and the grayscale is mainly above average. Reel change markers are present throughout. Contrast has been consistently applied. The film has been divided into chapters every ten minutes so this transfer has 9 chapters.

Audio Rating: 2.5/5

The volume level has been set a bit too high on this encode and needs to be adjusted to prevent distortion. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound mix is decoded by Dolby Prologic into the center channel. Dialogue and song lyrics are clear for the most part and are never overtaken by the background music or accompanying sound effects. But age-related problems like incessant hiss, some pops and crackle continually appear and distract a bit from the film’s overall effectiveness.

Special Features Rating: 0/5

There are no bonus features on this made-on-demand disc.

Overall Rating: 3/5

King of Burlesque is a valuable item in the filmography of musical star Alice Faye as her rise to the top echelon of 20^th Century Fox stars notches another leap upward with her work here. It’s an entertaining musical of the era, let down a bit by a mostly mediocre sound and visual presentation on this Fox Cinema Archive release.

Reviewed By: Matt Hough

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Another great review Matt. Thanks.

I get the feeling Fox were presenting Alice Faye as their answer to Jean Harlow at this time, thus the 'platinum blonde/pencil eyebrow' look. They used her in a role originally planned for Harlow: Belle Fawcett in IN OLD CHICAGO. If I understand correctly, Fox wanted to borrow Harlow and Gable for their big budget answer to SAN FRANCISCO (in the '30's "disaster cycle" of movies- THE RAINS CAME, THE HURRICANE,HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT etc- which was repeated in the '70's). MGM wanted Shirley Temple for THE WIZARD OF OZ (Liza Minnelli refers to this in her narration in THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!) and she was so "big" that Fox demanded two of MGM's top stars in exchange. Harlow's untimely death nixed the deal (and we wound up with the best performer possible for WIZARD) Fox would respond with a wonderfully produced but misjudged bomb in the same vein starring Shirley called THE BLUE BIRD). Faye looks very 'Harlow-esque' in CHICAGO too.

I have HELLO FRISCO HELLO and I look forward to viewing the earlier version. Glad to read that it is an above-average transfer.

By the way, speaking of Faye, in her autobiography she states that she agreed to come back to work at Fox for the remake of STATE FAIR because Don Ameche was either cast or being sought for the role of her farmer husband and the movie was going to be directed by Henry King (who directed the 1933 version and had recently been a Director's Guild finalist for CAROUSEL). She probably only re-considered working at the studio again because Darryl F. Zanuck was not running the place at that time (he would return during the CLEOPATRA crisis and assume his old position as studio head-and later fire his own son, who was responsible for THE SOUND OF MUSIC being made). Faye had been very upset at the cuts made to her performance in Preminger's FALLEN ANGEL, which built up Linda Darnell's role at the expense of her own. (Miss Darnell was reportedly Zanuck's mistress). In the end she was disappointed that Tom Ewell portrayed the role of Abel Frake (they did not get on at all) and also with the decision to let Jose Ferrer direct rather than King. She called it "a big mistake" for memory. However, the remake is not without its merits, Alice being one of the chief ones. Alfred Newman's orchestrations is another.( Richard Rodgers new songs (with the exception of 'Willing and Eager') are amongst the demerits (!) Hammerstein died working on the new movie and obviously did not get to contribute any new lyrics).