A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

That's as in Alice, not Dunaway. But, you'll never know how much you'll love her until you see some of her pre 1940's work when she really was the queen of the Fox musical, filled with more pip and pizazz that the Zanuck studio would when they signed another blonde named Betty Grable. Back then, Alice Faye was pluckier and sexier, not quite like Harlow (as she had been during her earlier days), but certainly tougher, and not so Ann Harding like when they began to make her characters more long suffering.The story here has her as a starving playwright who sings for her supper in an Italian restaurant after revealing she doesn't have money for the two healing helpings of spaghetti she scarfed down. Drunk theatrical producer Don Ameche decides to secretly help her out, with objections from his boss, Charles Winninger, and his socialite stalker, Louise Hovick, aka Gypsy Rose Lee, who claims to be married to him. Ameche's aided by the silly Ritz Brothers, and by chance, Ameche tries to get her to star in his big musical (which she hates) so he can get rid of his pain in the butt diva star, Phyllis Brooks, whom everybody seems to hate. Clara Blandick ("Auntie Em") plays a nasty customer in the music shop in Faye's home town which indicates why she left there in the first place. I'm wondering, however, if there was an opening scene with Faye cut from the film in this provincial hovel of babbity people like Blandick that made her decide to leave in the first place. Hovick/Gypsy is so camp in her deliciously bad acting, but it fits her off screen image.This is the 20th Century Fox musical at its delightful best, with Faye joined by real life husband #1 Tony Martin in the show within the movie scenes. Ameche gets to sing as well, a sign of things to come when he later sent on to become a musical comedy star himself on Broadway. Of course, this has all the formulatic elements that many 1930's and 40's musicals had, but it works here very well. The Ritz Brothers are very funny in a production number about long underwear. The title may be true in life, buy as far as this film is concerned, it couldn't be further from the truth, but that's a good thing.

I guess I'm in a minority, but I found the results tepid, at best. The Ritz Brothers have no real act except to bounce around in tandem, and are more annoying than funny. Then too, the production numbers appear cut-rate, certainly not up to anything memorable. I kept hoping we'd get an eccentric styling from bandleader Louis Prima, but no such luck. Maybe he needed Keely Smith to play off of. The plot's boilerplate, but then who tunes into musicals for the plot. It's something about Faye finding her real place in show business, at the same time she and writer Ameche try to find a way to get together.On the other hand, Faye's delightful, sparkling one minute, soulful the next. She really deserved better musical backup. Ameche's lively and a handsome foil for Faye. No wonder they were a natural movie twosome. Their first scene together in the spaghetti emporium is a peach. Too bad the remainder doesn't equal that initial scene. Then there's the amazonian Gypsy Rose Lee who could easily have stolen the movie against someone less compelling than Faye. Too bad Lee didn't make a career of movies; she would have made a heckuva villainess. Nonetheless, in my little book, the musical's mainly for fans of the great Alice Faye, and little more.

Alice Faye, Don Ameche, The Ritz Brothers, Louise Hovick (Gypsy Rose Lee), Charles Winninger and Tony Martin star in "You Can't Have Everything," a 1937 musical from 20th Century Fox. MGM musicals were glamorous; Fox musicals were down to earth, glitzy, and just plain fun. This is one of them. Faye is a playwright, Judith Poe Wells, a distant relative of Edgar Allan Poe's, who takes herself very seriously. She meets a man (Ameche) at a restaurant while eating food she can't pay for and doesn't realize he is a major Broadway producer, George Macrae. He options her play, North Winds. In the meantime, his musical's ingénue (Phyllis Brooks) walks out of the show, and Judith is talked into replacing her by Sam Gordon (Winninger), George's business partner. Though there's another woman (Hovick), Judith falls in love with George and he with her. Complications ensue.Faye sings the title song and "Pardon Us, We're in Love" and she's wonderful - pretty, vivacious, and she sounds great. Ameche sings in a heady tenor, but the real male pipes in the film belong to Tony Martin, the star of the Broadway show, who sounds glorious. I admit to finding the Ritz Brothers annoying, especially because their numbers seem to go on and on. However, they do have funny moments here.Enjoyable film and a good example of a prime Fox musical.

Director Norman Taurog has a witty script and the top musical performers on the Fox lot to direct, and he delivers. The plot is all too familiar and implausible, but the dialogue sparks it. Leads Alice Faye and Don Ameche are at their most charming and natural, and Faye has a couple of solid hit songs. Too bad Ameche wasn't as lucky. The Ritz Brothers have integrated roles in the plot, ample screen time and deliver several excellent numbers. Tip, Tap & Toe wow with a fine eccentric tap number just before the production number (a clinker) at the end of the film. Character comedian Charles Winninger is somewhat wasted in a largely straight role, but Gypsy Rose Lee (billed under her real name, Louise Hovick, gets a break as a playing the snarky "other woman." Tony Martin has fine pipes but comes off a bit smarmy and mannered in his numbers, and Rubinoff on screen is proof why he was better on radio. Phyllis Brooks and Wally Vernon also deliver snappy bits. Definitely one of the better of 20th Century Zanuck's musicals, although he can't resist his cheesily costumed chorus cuties whose talents are best on display without moving or talking. One chorine with a platter on her head traipsed pigeon-toed down a staircase in a Tony Martin number--at first I thought she was Harry Ritz. I'll watch this film again just to see the Ritz Brothers and Tip, Tap & Toe.