Adolphe Menjou stars with Alice Faye, Michael Whelan, Patsy Kelly, and the Ritz Brothers in "Sing, Baby, Sing" from 1936. At the end of the film, there is a short section introducing the Ritz Brothers as new talents.
This film was to be an early role for Tyrone Power in the Michael Whelan part - for some reason, Sidney Lanfield had him replaced with Whelan, a bigger name. Talk about getting the last laugh.
The film satirizes the romance between John Barrymore and Elaine Barrie, a college student who later became his wife. Menjou plays the drunken actor Bruce Farraday, who decides that pretty singer Joan Warren (Alice Faye) is Juliet to his Romeo during one of her performances.
Joan has lost her job and gone to an agent (Gregory Ratoff) who decides to get Joan some publicity by advertising Farraday's interest in her.
A lot of musical numbers, with the adorable Faye singing the title song and "You Turned the Tables on Me." Tony Martin sublimely sings "When Did You Leave Heaven?"
The Ritz Brothers are heavily featured, probably a bit too much. Some of their routines are quite good and some are silly.
Menjou does a terrific job, reciting Shakespeare in the hospital and becoming enamored of bay rum and drinking it from a hot water bottle through a straw. He thinks it's a drink from South America, but in reality, when he insists on a drink, Joan's agent finds a bottle of it in the hospital.
Not much to this, but it's enjoyable.
