Hello Frisco, Hello

By VARIETY STAFF

20th Century-Fox. Dir H. Bruce Humberstone; Producer Milton Sperling; Screenplay Robert Ellis, Helen Logan, Richard Macauley; Camera Charles Clarke, Allen Davey; Editor Barbara McLean; Music Charles Henderson, Emil Newman (dirs.) Art Dir James Basevi, Boris Leven
 
Alice Faye
John Payne
Jack Oakie
Lynn Bari
Laird Cregar
June Havoc
 

Per usual the typical musical comedy plot is no great shakes, but nicely studded with laughs, pathos and innumerable musical interludes. Laid in San Francisco at the turn of the century when, as the story has it, men were still prospecting for gold nearby, story spots John Payne as the leader of a foursome that includes Alice Faye, Jack Oakie and June Havoc. It's a typical tavern combo that leans on their warbling to keep a regular job in the metropolis' leading saloon.

Rise of quartet, with Payne as business man and showman, is phenomenal until all four are rolling in coin. The yen of Payne to make the grade in Nob Hill society brings the usual complications.

Alice Faye, who has the task of selling the vast majority of tunes, is a revelation. Payne makes a sufficiently zestful business manager for the quartet, though one wonders why he falls so hopelessly for Lynn Bari, the Nob Hill socialite. Jack Oakie, as the happy-go-lucky hoofer, and his partner, June Havoc, make sufficient contrast as the other half of the foursome. Oakie also cashes in on some tricky tap dances and his usual mugging. All four fit nicely in their song-dance routines.

(Color) Extract of a review from 1943. Running time: 90 MIN.