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Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 3
Fresh: 2
Rotten:1
Average Rating: N/A
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Synopsis: ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND offers a star-studded cast (Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, and Ethel Merman) in a sumptuous showcase for 29 fantastic Irving Berlin tunes, including the title song,... ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND offers a star-studded cast (Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, and Ethel Merman) in a sumptuous showcase for 29 fantastic Irving Berlin tunes, including the title song, "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody," "Blue Skies," and "Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil." The music begins rolling in San Francisco, where classically trained violinist Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) flouts his aristocratic family conventions to take up ragtime. He starts a band with composer Charlie Dwyer (Don Ameche) and singer Stella Kirby (Alice Faye). Over the next 30 years, two members of this triangle fall in love, a different two get married, one goes away to war, and the band breaks up and gets back together again. The lead role is based on the lives of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Paul Whiteman. Director Henry King's ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND was one of the first and is still one of the best "let's put on a show" films of all time. Love, loyalty, fame, jealousy, duty, honor, and country all play alongside each other as the spectacular cast bursts through this breathtaking showbiz epic. [More]
Starring: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Jack Haley
Starring: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Jack Haley, Jean Hersholt, Ethel Merman, Helen Westley, John Carradine, Paul Hurst, Wally Vernon, Ruth Terry, Eddie Collins, Douglas Fowley, Chick Chandler, Charles Williams
Director: Henry King
Director: Henry King
Composer: Irving Berlin
Screenwriter: Lamar Trotti
Composer: Alfred Newman
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
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Reviews for Alexander's Ragtime Band
Despite Tyrone Powers' stiff turn in the lead, Henry King's Depression-era musical is well-crafted, boasting 28 of Irving Berlin's greatest hits, some nicely performed by Alice Faye at her prime.
Easily a tune every few minutes, all reliably executed, but the film’s insistence on musical comprehensiveness leaves room only for the barest of character development.
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