You're a Sweetheart

I've always liked Alice Faye. She had a joie-de-vivre about her that always made me reckon that she really did appreciate just how fortunate she was to be making a good living from films. Here she turns in an amiable enough performance as "Betty", a would-be star of the Broadway stage. She is to headline the opening night of a new show from a much earlier, less flamboyant, iteration of "Don King" (Ken Murray). Thing is, nobody realised that this star-studded occasion was going to clash with an even bigger gathering, and unable to move his performance, the show looks to be going the way of the dodo. There must be solution - and it falls to waiter and sometime PR guy "Adams" (George Murphy) to come up with a clever plan that involves getting a wealthy backer to buy out the performance - "Daddy Warbucks" style. Who would do such a thing? Anyway, you can guess that a plan will be concocted, but poor old "Betty" is left out of the scheme, and so when she meets said millionaire, the two start to fall for each other with some engaging, if entirely predictable results. It's not a great film, no - but it has a certain freshness and it looks smart and stylish. The theme song is catchy enough, though not especially memorable, and the dance numbers are well put together offering us a glimpse of what passed for entertainment in 1930s America. It is a fun watch, just not a particularly notable one.