This film starred the top talent at Twentieth-Century Fox. Tyrone Power (who could not sing or play music),Alice Faye and Don Ameche star in this film directed by Henry King and featuring the music of Irving Berlin. Clearly it was a prestige film for the studio--a large budget film with high expectations for success.

The film begins with Power playing sophisticated music for a crowd of high-class folks. Only moments later, however, he's playing Ragtime music for a crowd in a bar--and it's obvious that he's torn between the world of society and popular music. Quite by Hollywood accident, the feisty Alice Faye is pulled into Power's band and the way she and Power meet and get along is very clichéd--you know, the misunderstanding that results in them becoming enemies and you KNOW they'll be in love sooner or later! She is a low-class dame and over time, Power is able to polish her image and make her a success--along with his band. On hand is another cliché--the nice-guy friend (Ameche) who loves the girl but demurs when his friend and the dame become a pair. You almost feel sorry for Ameche getting such a thankless role as the 'nice' friend...though I am sure his enormous checks from the studio more than made up for this! And then there's the final big cliché when Faye and Power break up--only, naturally, to be reunited by the film's conclusion. The only question is what, exactly, will happen in between--and there are certainly a lot of twists that occur in the interim in their parallel journeys. WWI, another woman (a younger and amazingly pretty Ethel Merman),marriage and bootlegging all are among the things the film explores during this portion. And if all this seems familiar, it is if you've seen many Fox musicals. This plot, with a few changes, was used in "King of Burlesque" and many other films with Alice Faye.

As for the film overall, it's pretty much what you expect from the studio--a lot of music (way too much, actually),a lot of polish and the best sets money can buy (Twentieth-Century Fox and MGM were the kings of such lavish productions). But, beneath all the polish, it is all formula and clichés--the sort of film that is pleasant but certainly not a must-see. Plus, oddly, the music, for the most part, isn't exactly Ragtime--often it's more the typical sort of musical numbers you'd see in just about any Fox production of the day.

By the way, in the WWI portion, I noticed that some of the soldiers were amazingly old and fat. Were we THAT desperate for men?! And get a load of those devil-girl dancers at about the 75 minute mark!

The involvement of a talented cast (Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, Alice Faye, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley) and director (the undervalued Henry King) and with songs penned by one of the greatest song-writers of all time Irving Berlin were reasons enough to see 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' in the first place.

And on the most part it did not disappoint. Its only primary fault really is the thin-on-the-ground (merely an excuse to string along songs together) and old-hat (with a concept that has been done to death and much better) story, that is even further advantaged by that it's pure sappy hokum, that it's rather perfunctorily paced at the beginning and that the First World War stuff is dispatched rather too quickly, almost like a throwaway.

It is constantly mentioned that one shouldn't see musicals for their stories, but it always depends on how well done everything else is, if other elements are not very well executed or if the story is the only element not so well executed that it sticks out like a sore thumb it is more noticeable and does sort of matter. The latter is the case here.

However, the main reason to see 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' is the music. It is literally an Irving Berlin song-fest and what a glorious one it is too, not hard at all to see why the musical is considered his first big popular hit. Some of the songs are among his most well-known and best, especially "Blue Skies", "Easter Parade" and "Heat Wave".

The title song, "This is the Life", "My Walking Stick" and "All Alone" are similarly wonderful, but really there isn't a bad song in the bunch. They are very nicely staged too, with the most note-worthy being "My Walking Stick", a lot of fun, and the Faye and Merman rendition of "Blue Skies", which admittedly made me tear up.

'Alexander's Ragtime Band' looks good too, being handsomely shot and with elegant costume design. The sets, while not lavish or expansive, are still very easy on the eye. The script crackles, amuses and affects, and despite the perfunctory beginning once the film picks up and it does so very quickly the energy is non-stop. King directs with panache and class.

Power's gorgeously handsome looks, immense likability and magnetic charisma film are so winning here that I was willing to forgive his reasonably limited singing ability and lack of rhythm, things usually not really that forgivable personally when watching musicals. Faye sings beautifully, especially in "Remember" and "All Alone" that are also sung with heartfelt emotion, the camera clearly loves her and she is impossible to resist or dislike.

Ameche completes the love triangle charmingly in the most effortless of ways, and is every bit as likable as Power. Merman steals scenes with her boundless energy and big brassy voice that soars in songs like "My Walking Stick", "Everybody Step" and particularly "Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil" while also softening in "Blue Skies" and "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody". Haley, in a pre-Tin Man role, dances with energetic athleticism and has a very appealing presence on film.

In summary, with the sole exception of the story a winner all round, with the biggest joy being the songs. Essentially a must watch for Berlin fanatics, because they will be in heaven.

Power, Ameche, Faye and King also worked together in 'In Old Chicago', and while it had a riveting final twenty minutes, with terrific visuals for back then and now, and the cast acquit themselves very well it is nowhere near as good a film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND (20th Century-Fox, 1938),directed by Henry King, reunites the lead performers of Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche from the blockbuster success of IN OLD CHICAGO (1937) in a musical cavalcade of Irving Berlin songs spanning two decades. One of the first in a long cycle of 20th/Fox musicals focusing on the "as time goes by" theme, keeping the story together through the mixture of old and new song standards. Fox would recycle such stories similar to this over the years, with imitations done by other studios as well, with ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND, the one that started it all, musically ranks one the best of its kind.

The story begins in San Francisco's Barbary Coast, circa 1911, where young aristocratic Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) disappoints his strong-willed Aunt Sophie (Helen Westley) and Professor Heinrich (Jean Hersholt) by abandoning classical music for something on a more popular level. Forming a band consisting of Charlie Dwyer (Don Ameche),composer and pianist, and Davey Lane (Jack Haley),a drummer, they go to audition at a bar called Dirty Eddie's. Charlie misplaces their song sheet and at the last minute acquire one belonging to another. They play the new composition of "Alexander's Ragtime Band," but when Stella Kirby (Alice Faye),mixing with some friends, hears her borrowed music being played, she immediately heads towards the platform singing the lyrics. They become an immediate hit and Roger becomes Alexander and his Ragtime Band. In spite of Alexander and Stella constantly bickering and misunderstanding each other, it is Charlie who acts as their referee. As time passes on, Charlie, who now loves Stella, learns, while she sings one of his original compositions, that she really loves Alex. After Stella gets a job offer from Broadway producer Charles Dillingham (Joseph King),she accepts, forgetting about the band. In doing this, Alex and Stella part company, as does Charlie during a heated argument. Charlie marries Stella,and realizing she's still in love with Alex, decides to grant her a divorce for her sake. As for Alex, he prospers with Jerry Allen (Ethel Merman),as his new vocalist, while Stella leaves Dillingham and fades away to obscurity, causing Alex, now world renowned and performing at Carnegie Hall, to wonder whatever became of her. 

The motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (sung by Alice Faye); "Ragtime Violin" (sung by Jane Jones, Otto Fries and Mel Kalish); "International Rag" (Alice Faye, Jack Haley and Chick Chandler); "Everybody's Doing It" (Alice Faye, Wally Vernon and Dixie Dunbar); "Now It Can Be Told" (Don Ameche); "Now It Can Be Told" (reprize/Alice Faye); "This is the Life" (Wally Vernon); "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'" (Alice Faye); "For Your Country and My Country" (Don Douglas); "In the Y.M.C.A." (The Kings Men); "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" (Jack Haley/chorus); "We're on Our Way to France" (sung by soldiers); "Say It With Music" and "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" and "Blue Skies" (all sung by Ethel Merman); "Blue Skies" (reprize, Alice Faye and Merman); "Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil" (Ethel Merman); "What'll I Do?" (The Kings Men); "My Walking Stick" (Ethel Merman); "Remember?" (Alice Faye); "Everybody Step" (Ethel Merman); "I'm All Alone" (Alice Faye); "Marie" (instrumental); "Easter Parade" (sung by Don Ameche); "Heat Wave" (Ethel Merman, chorus); "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (reprize, Alice Faye).

With such an impressive cast headed by the up-and-coming Tyrone Power, who spends more time waving his stick, and in true Hollywood storytelling, arguing and making love with his female vocalist(s),it's easy to see its initial popularity, earning several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, with the music keeping much the scenario together. A personal favorite of Alice Faye's, it not only allows her to sing one hit song after another, but to challenge herself as both vocalist and actress, whose character starts off as a tough gal sporting flashy clothes and plenty of facial make-up before changing through the passage of time to a more softer persona moderately dressed. While much of the principal players remaining physically the same throughout its 106 minutes of screen time, with the exception of costumes reflecting the changing of times, Don Ameche's only major change is sporting a mustache during the film's second half.

At one point in television history, ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND did enjoy frequent revivals until the mid 1970s when some legal entanglement kept it off the TV markets for quite some time. Then in 1991, it was brought back to the airwaves, on commercial television, and notably on cable television's American Movie Classics in 1991-92 before distribution on video cassette in 1992, and later onto DVD, Fox Movie Channel and Turner Classic Movies where it premiered February 11, 2010. In 1997, AMC presented a the well documented special titled "Hidden Hollywood: From the Vaults of 20th Century-Fox" narrated by Joan Collins, presenting musical outtakes, several from ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND, including Ameche's singing "Some Sunny Day," and Merman in fine voice as always singing "Marching Along With Time," the tune that underscores the opening and closing credits. These outtakes are used as added attractions on DVD. Other victims of the editors ax might be those of Jean Hersholt and Helen Westley, whose characters are seen to the limit. Of the supporting players, many are too numerous to pen their individual attention, are Paul Hurst, best known for playing villains or gangster stooges, ideally cast in a sympathetic role as Bill Mulligan, and John Carradine, appearing briefly as a taxi driver and avid fan of Stella Kirby.

With Power and Faye constantly settling the score with one another, ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND swings into action hitting many high notes, with much of its melody lingering on. (****)