Review of Sing, Baby, Sing

Radio singer Alice Faye finds out that her radio job is ending due to the obsession with publicity-seeking society girls with no talent and nothing else to do. With the help of agent Gregory Ratoff, she tries to pose as one of those girls (who actually has talent) yet fails to land a contract. When a drunken John Barrymore like movie actor (Adolphe Menjou) falls under her spell, she begins to get some unwanted publicity as a gold digger, and his agent strains to keep them apart. There's really little more to the plot than that, several mediocre Ritz Brothers sketches thrown in for groans, showing the audience laughing hysterically at their antics, including one "Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde" sketch that isn't even remotely amusing. A magic act by Ted Healy while Patsy Kelly sings a medley of past 20th Century Fox movie themes is much funnier. Tony Martin comes in late as an electric company employee who is discovered by Faye simply walking down the street and ends up on the finale radio show as well. Faye's sultry singing voice is well utilized, as in the title song and the haunting "You Turned the Tables on Me". The result is mixed, fun comedy with Healy and Kelly, the husky voiced Faye very likable, yet plot wise, pretty weak. Menjou's spoof of the Barrymore image, though, is very funny, with references to "Hamlet" which ironically had two productions on Broadway the same year at the same time.