LILLIAN RUSSELL (1940)

Fictionalized biography of a famous turn-of-the-century singer and actress. In the usual 20th Century Fox Fox fashion, there are problems with bland acting and plot-heavy proceedings. Alice Faye plays Russell, born and raised in Iowa; her mother (Dorothy Peterson) is a suffragette who, after the family moves to New York, runs unsuccessfully for mayor. Faye is afraid her serious-minded mother won't approve of her attempt at a singing career, but ultimately, her family backs her up--including her father (Ernest Turex) and grandmother (Helen Westley). The rest of the movie is an episodic account of her life as she finds fame and fortune and many friends, but is less successful with love. The supporting roles are filled with familiar names: Henry Fonda is a young man who saves Faye from runaway horses and, years later, reconnects with her. Don Ameche is a songwriter who marries Faye but never quite finds professional success of his own. Edward Arnold is Faye's dear friend Diamond Jim Brady (a part he played in DIAMOND JIM five years earlier) and Warren William is a rich admirer. Nigel Bruce is Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan); Eddie Foy Jr. plays his own real-life father and Una O'Connor is, what else, a maid. The movie is a bit long at 2 hours, and Faye is a big blank at the center of the film; she's certainly not terrible, but there is no spark in her eyes and her voice and bearing suggest nothing about what might have made the real Lillian Russell special. There are some nice musical numbers, such as "After the Ball," "The Band Played On," and "Under the Bamboo Tree." One highlight has her making news by singing to President Grover Cleveland over the telephone from backstage at a show. Westley has the best line in the movie; when someone asks if Russell's father is still alive, she replies, "With a suffragette wife and five daughters, I don't know if you can call it living." [FMC]