Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 12 May 1939 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 5 May 1939. U.S. release: 5 May 1939. U.K. release: July 1939. Australian release: 10 August 1939. 7,766 feet. 86 minutes. (Available on an excellent Fox DVD).SYNOPSIS: Singer falls for a no-good gambler. NOTES: Originally Faye sang "I'll See You In My Dreams" in a New York supper club sequence. Other deleted songs were "Avalon" and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows". Fanny Brice sued the studio for damages. The matter was settled out of court. Remade in 1968 as Funny Girl.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Difficult. Based on the career of Fanny Brice (and also partly on that of Al Jolson himself), so I would say suitable for all.COMMENT: If Love Me Tonight is one of my favorite musical comedies, Rose of Washington Square is certainly one of my top choices for musical drama. Not that there is no comedy in this movie. Far from it. In fact Hobart Cavanaugh contributes the portrayal of his career as the unwitting if ultimately very willing stooge. And Jolson plays the scenes with Cavanaugh with such panache, it's hard to realize his screen career was virtually over. Of course he also has some of his trademark songs and these he puts over with such style, Jolie is worth the price of admission alone. But despite his huge contribution to the movie's overall appeal, Jolson is only the support. It's Alice Faye's movie. And what a great performance she gives! And boy, does she knock over those songs! Power is magnetic too, giving a far more accurate and far more arresting interpretation of Nicky Arnstein than the bland and disappointingly colorless Omar Sharif. Power is a confidence man with persuasively shallow charm. Ideally cast. This and Nightmare Alley are Power at his absolute best.Every other player in Rose is as forcefully cast from William Frawley's fix-it agent through Ben Welden's sarcastically menacing Toby and Charles Wilson's nemesis of a flatfoot to Harry Hayden's frightened victim ("I've got a gun!"). Armed with Nunnally Johnson's scintillating dialogue and taking every advantage of their dramatic opportunities, many of these character people likewise hand out some of the most memorable cameos of their lives. Welden, for example, must have been cast in hundreds of movies, but this is his finest hour ("I've got to hand it to you, Clinton...")Johnson's script is a model of fine screen writing. Not only has he told the Fanny Brice-Nicky Arnstein story in a powerfully fast-paced 86 minutes (Funny Girl took a ponderous 155 to cover the same ground), but he has fleshed it out with an extraordinarily large gallery of fascinating subsidiary characters as well (aside from the swamped Streisand and soggy Sharif, I don't remember any other people in Funny Girl at all). And in addition to these miracles of arresting narrative construction, Johnson has still allowed plenty of time for some terrific standards from both Jolson and Faye, both of whom are in tip-top voice.Director Gregory Ratoff has risen nobly to the occasion. I've remarked before in Hollywood Classics that Ratoff's directorial abilities seemed to swing violently yet unaccountably from the extremely banal to the inventively brilliant from one film to another. Fortunately, Rose finds him at his most stylishly accomplished. Not only has he drawn winning performances from his players, but he reinforces the drama and comedy in Johnson's script by inspired camera placements and deft cutting. Or maybe it's ace cinematographer Karl Freund's inspired camera placements and Louis Leoffler's smooth, forceful cutting. In any case, Freund's masterful lighting of course is a major asset. And I loved the sets and costumes. Production values are lavish — and there's that wonderful 20th Century-Fox sound!

MartinHafer WARNING: This is a politically incorrect film. Deal with it and understand the context or just skip it altogether--I could certainly understand why you might skip it. Just know ahead of time that through much of the film, one of the stars performs in black-face (yikes!!). However, it IS a part of our history and is a pretty good film, so I would hate to see everyone just disregard it completely.The film begins with Alice Faye working with partner Al Jolson. They are both struggling singers and have hopes of making it big on Broadway. The path for Jolson is pretty smooth, and he's soon discovered and becomes the toast of the town. As for Faye, in the meantime, she falls for a no-good pretty boy (Tyrone Power) and her route to the top is a bit slower and filled with pitfalls.Both Faye and Jolson sing a huge number of songs. Jolson's act may surprise and offend a lot in the audience, after all his shtick was singing in black-face! But despite his politically incorrect act, he was in top form here--singing many of his all-time great songs that are still pretty enjoyable today. As for Faye, with her rather husky voice, she is a bit of a surprise, as today it's a bit harder to see her appeal. I mean that while she isn't bad at all, she also isn't all that great when she sings--though she was a huge box office star in her day.You might swear that you've seen this before...especially if you've seen FUNNY GIRL. While many of the details have been changed, the plot of ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE is essentially the story of Fanny Brice and her scum-bag lover, Nicky Arnstein. However, Twentieth-Century Fox decided to do this without the permission or royalties to Ms. Brice--resulting in a lawsuit and subsequent settlement. The most egregious bit of "literary license" is having Faye sing a close variation of Brice's hit song "My Man". While much of this information is on IMDb about the background for the film, I could clearly see the similarities....and differences. While Alice Faye looks and acts nothing like Fanny Brice, Tyrone Power is much closer to Arnstein--though, like in FUNNY GIRL, he's a bit sanitized. In ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE, he's more of a man who unsuccessfully juggles and connives--not an outright crook like the real Arnstein, but more like a lovable schemer who essentially means well. As for the rest of the film, it's a Vaudeville extravaganza--leading to Alice Faye and Al Jolson going to work for Mr. Ziegfeld. Brice, as you may know, was a huge star with Ziegfeld despite (or perhaps because of) her very ethnic singing and "unconventional looks" (a nice way of saying ugly). She sure didn't look or sing like Faye, but otherwise there sure are a lot of similarities--except that in the end, Faye waited for her lover to return from prison, whereas after already serving a stretch in Sing Sing and bound for Leavenworth, Ms. Brice thankfully divorced Arnstein.Very watchable and enjoyable but also a rather sleazy exploitation of Ms. Brice AND a disturbing case of minstrel-itis!

blanche-2 Despite this disclaimer at the beginning of "Rose of Washington Square," Fanny Brice realized the film was about her and quickly sued 20th Century Fox. Gee, wonder what the kicker was...the good-looking con man husband who goes to jail on a bond fraud? The lead character headlining with the Ziegfield Follies? Or was it the song "My Man"? Alice Faye is very pretty as Rose in this somewhat politically incorrect film which also stars Tyrone Power and Al Jolson: There's the man who is paid to drink so he can heckle Al Jolson as part of his act, and there's Al himself in blackface with white lips up on stage singing. Nevertheless, the real story concerns the codependent relationship between Rose and Bart, her crooked husband. But it's Tyrone Power, and what woman wouldn't have loved him - in fact, what woman didn't love him in 1939? He was the number 2 box office star. He portrays the likable but sleazy character very well. In the beginning of his career a few years earlier, he did romantic comedy, then did a string of films where he was a cad, then played soldiers, and after the war, did everything - he was a young man who found himself in "The Razor's Edge," played against type in "Nightmare Alley," and period-pieced his way through Fox until his contract finally ended. In 22 years as a star, he really did every genre, and did them beautifully.There's lots of music in this movie and a HUGE build-up to the song "My Man" before Faye ever sings it. When she does, it's not the Streisand version, but rather a torch song, sung in Faye's low, rich voice. Jolson was a terrific performer though apparently extremely egomaniacal and difficult to work with. He sings his standards: "Mammy," "California Here I Come," "Toot-toot-Tootsie," "Rockabye Your Baby," etc., and he's great. Power and Faye make a wonderful couple. And by the way, they shared the same birthday, a year apart.This is an okay film, but it's no Alexander's Ragtime Band, which is far superior.

Kalaman I hate to be the sole spoilsport in this group of unanimous adulation, but I thought "Rose of Washington Square" was slightly disappointing. Perhaps I had high hopes for it since I'm one of Alice Faye's biggest fans and I love almost all of the classic Fox musicals, but "Rose" ranks with one of Faye & Fox's weakest musicals. Exhaustingly directed by Gregory Ratoff, this wispy, half-tolerable biography of Fanny Brice turns out to be a less successful attempt by Darryl Zanuck to repeat the magic and splendor of Henry King's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" with Faye and her leading man Tyrone Power. What made King's classic memorable, aside from the luminous presence of Faye, was Irving Berlin's endlessly melodious music. Here, except Faye's singing of "My Man" and Al Jolson's "Mammy", the songs are not only unmemorable, but dismal. See it only for the stars but don't expect anything as remotely magical as "Alexander's Ragtime Band".