Fifth Avenue Girl is yet another film about a harried father beset with business woes and a spoiled family just like Gregory LaCava's other classic film, My Man Godfrey. And the star of yet another LaCava classic Stage Door, Ginger Rogers takes the lead here as a working class girl who gets hired by Fifth Avenue millionaire Walter Connolly to pose as his mistress to shake up his complacent and stupid family. Kind of like asking Rogers to pose as his Marion Davies to his William Randolph Hearst.
Ginger has her hands full with wife Verree Teasdale who is playing a part much like Alice Brady in My Man Godfrey. Imagine Brady in that film confronted with Eugene Palette stepping out and you have some idea of her performance. Connolly and Teasdale have children Tim Holt who before he went full time into westerns played a lot of callow youths like he is here. He's big time into polo and not really into helping dad at the office. As for daughter Kathryn Adams, she's all about her debut as a débutante, she kind of likes the family chauffeur James Ellison, but he's spouting all kinds of Marxist dogma without really understanding it. And there's that class distinction.
Fifth Avenue though along the same lines as My Man Godfrey falls a bit flat in the execution. Tim Holt does too good a job as the snobbish upper class youth, so much so you can't see Rogers giving him any kind of consideration. In fact there is a brief scene where Holt gets into it with a sailor played by Jack Carson and it ends disappointingly because you so wanted to see Carson flatten him. Ellison too turns out to be more of a phony than you would like.
Connolly and Rogers however work very well together, their scenes are the highlight of Fifth Avenue Girl. And Franklin Pangborn as the butler is restrained a bit, but still very good.
Ginger Rogers's legion of fans should like the film, but it's far from her best.
Ginger has her hands full with wife Verree Teasdale who is playing a part much like Alice Brady in My Man Godfrey. Imagine Brady in that film confronted with Eugene Palette stepping out and you have some idea of her performance. Connolly and Teasdale have children Tim Holt who before he went full time into westerns played a lot of callow youths like he is here. He's big time into polo and not really into helping dad at the office. As for daughter Kathryn Adams, she's all about her debut as a débutante, she kind of likes the family chauffeur James Ellison, but he's spouting all kinds of Marxist dogma without really understanding it. And there's that class distinction.
Fifth Avenue though along the same lines as My Man Godfrey falls a bit flat in the execution. Tim Holt does too good a job as the snobbish upper class youth, so much so you can't see Rogers giving him any kind of consideration. In fact there is a brief scene where Holt gets into it with a sailor played by Jack Carson and it ends disappointingly because you so wanted to see Carson flatten him. Ellison too turns out to be more of a phony than you would like.
Connolly and Rogers however work very well together, their scenes are the highlight of Fifth Avenue Girl. And Franklin Pangborn as the butler is restrained a bit, but still very good.
Ginger Rogers's legion of fans should like the film, but it's far from her best.