5th Ave Girl (1939)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Just perfect...

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In 5TH AVENUE GIRL, director Gregory La Cava seems to have anticipated Howard Hawks's HIS GIRL Friday by giving us a loose remake of MY MAN GODFREY with a key sex role reversal. A down-on-her-luck woman (Ginger Rogers) is thrust into the bosom of a bizarre wealthy family and goes a long way towards straightening them out. 5TH AVENUE GIRL presents a slightly more serious treatment, its family less eccentric and rather more mean than that of GODFREY, and the movie suffers for the changes. It was the second of three straight films that La Cava made with Ginger Rogers, and by my lights is easily the least of the three.On the plus side, the real star of the show is the fine character actor Walter Connolly, getting a rare opportunity to front a major film near the end of his life. As the put-upon manufacturer emotionally deserted by his ungrateful family, he successfully invokes the audience's sympathy and shares a pleasant chemistry with Rogers, who is in full- scale deadpan mode (to an excessive degree in my opinion). The rest of the cast is adequate with the exception of Tim Holt, a dead weight in pretty much everything in which I've seen him with the notable exception of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRES. A major problem for 5TH AVENUE GIRL is the complete lack of development of its love interest subplot. Indeed, with the exception of Connolly's industrialist, pretty much everything in 5TH AVENUE GIRL remains undeveloped, including the character of the 5th Avenue Girl herself, which remains vague and sketchy throughout (this young lady is remarkably nonchalant about being down to her last $5. Why?). Indeed, we get far more details about the communist chauffeur and the idiot rich girl than we ever get about Rogers' 'Miss Grey'.The whole film leaves me with a shrug of the shoulders. It's overtly sociological but never goes beyond 'the rich are people, too'. It's a comedy but is never really very funny. It's not exactly bad, but not really good, either. I guess I'm a lotta help, aren't I?

After a stressful business meeting, "Amalgamated Pump" millionaire Walter Connolly (as Timothy Borden) returns to his upper fifth avenue Manhattan mansion expecting to receive some "Happy Birthday" wishes. His spoiled, disinterested family has forgotten Mr. Connolly's birthday, however. Connolly goes to Central Park alone and meets sullen, disinterested Ginger Rogers (as Mary Grey). He learns the beautiful apple-chomping woman is homeless and invites Ms. Rogers to dinner. When she spends the night in his guest room, Connolly's family suddenly become interested in the old provider. Connolly invites Rogers to stay and shake up the household...Produced and directed by Gregory La Cava, this story is similar to his "My Man Godfrey" (1936). When Connolly goes to the park, you know he's either going to be mistaken or a bum or find one; after which, we might poke fun at the idle rich and admire the hard-working poor. For good measure, handsome family chauffeur James Ellison (as Michael "Mike" Farnsbother) dabbles in Communism...This is a good film, but it should be much better. The production looks great, the situation is fun and several one-liners work. Sadly, the top-billed cast doesn't really click. Rogers appears too elegant and serious; also, she displays little chemistry with her supporting cast, especially leading men Connolly and Tim Holt (as "Tim" Borden). La Cava should have re-cut Rogers' "kitchen knife scene" and added some romance. Rogers should have toned down her movie star looks and added more playfulness to her homeless character.***** 5th Ave Girl (8/25/39) Gregory La Cava ~ Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Tim Holt, James Ellison

The most notable features of this lame comedy-drama are a listless performance from Ginger Rogers, who behaves as if she had been on tranquilizers during production, and frequent Marxist-flavored rants delivered by James Ellison as a disgruntled chauffeur. It's a low-key variation on two much better films, My Man Godfrey and Holiday: dysfunctional super rich brought down to earth by an encounter with a poor person. It's interesting also to see the terminally haughty Verree Teasdale matched with Walter Connolly playing characters similar to the ones they played in 1937's First Lady. Teasdale deserved better scripts. She was a very amusing caricature of a high society lady with a commanding, plush, deep voice. Connolly as usual plays a tycoon whose hard-nosed business sense is tempered by a sort of warmhearted common sense.

'5th Avenue Girl' doesn't work, but it's a fascinating failure. I was especially impressed by Robert de Grasse's superb camera work. On two different occasions in this movie, Ginger Rogers has a conversation with someone while walking down a steep flight of stairs: in both cases, the camera seamlessly precedes Rogers down the stairs, which means that de Grasse and his crew must have made the steep descent facing backward. Elsewhere, rear-projection footage of Fifth Avenue and the Central Park Zoo is blended with live actors (in a multi-level set for the zoo) in a manner that looks much more convincing than usual.The single worst drawback of this movie is the presence of Walter Connolly in a lead role as a Capraesque self-made millionaire who likes poor people. He meets a down-and-out young cynic (Rogers) at the zoo, and -- somewhat improbably -- he invites her to move in with him and work for him. Somewhat improbably, she accepts. Connolly has never impressed me in any of his roles. His high-pitched voice and indecisive manner are annoying. He's so weak and subdued here, we instantly recognise that there's nothing sexual about his proposition to Rogers. Which is part of the problem. This film would have been much better if Connolly's role had been played by Edward Arnold, bringing his usual hint of danger to this character.Franklin Pangborn, an actor who consistently *does* impress me, surpasses himself here in a deft performance as Connolly's sentimental butler. It's a delight to see Pangborn dispense with the 'nelly' mannerisms that he employed in most of his performances. Less impressive here is James Ellison as a chauffeur who spouts Marxist dialectic. Verree Teasdale, whom I've never liked, gives a performance here resembling a female impersonator.One of the consistent pleasures of Hollywood films from the 1930s is the frequent appearance of obscure character actors in delightful vignettes. We get one of those here, from Robert Emmett Keane as a man obsessed with sea lions. Charles Lane is cast against type: doing his usual sourpuss routine, but this time on behalf of the 'little' people.Connolly's character lives in a *huge* mansion overlooking Central Park, and the set by Van Nest Polglase is so sumptuous that it actually works against this film's credibility. There are some nice bits and bobs throughout this movie (including a showy turn by Jack Carson, strumming a ukelele), but we could have done without the lectures on the plight of the proletariat. I'll rate this movie just 4 out of 10.