Controversial for two reasons: First, Fanny Brice won a court settlement after she sued 20th Century Fox for basing the film on her life story, even to the point of using her signature song, "My Man." Second, Al Jolson, once the most popular entertainer in America, does his blackface routine ad nauseam, singing "My Mammy," "Toot Toot Tootsie," "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody," and other songs he somehow made palatable to the racist white audiences of the time. Alice Faye stars and sings a number of old standards, such as "I'll see You in My Dreams," " I'm Just Wild about Harry," and the title song, while handsome Tyrone Power as her con artist boyfriend-then-husband does a lot of smiling and lying. The highlights for me, however, are the acrobatic specialty dance by "Igor and Tanya" that follows the title song and watching the great trumpeter Louis Prima perform with Faye, who shines for all the right reasons. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013
Review of Rose of Washington Square
