CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Glucedee
It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Antonius Block
Three young women get fired from their jobs, have no money or place to stay, and attempt to get on their feet again by entering a radio competition. They carry a nice tune, but after losing to 'Tops' Cardona (George Raft) and his orchestra, they join up with Tops and follow his somewhat stern direction in the hopes of advancing their careers.The three women are played by Alice Faye, Frances Langford, and Patsy Kelly, and while I enjoyed Kelly's pluck and Langford's singing, I have to say, the film was a little lacking in star power to put it over the top. Alice Faye is a bit like Jean Harlow lite, and Raft is not as effective here as in films like Scarface, though I did like the little bit of cool dancing he did while conducting at one point. Along those lines, in this film we get some banter, but it's banter-lite, most likely because the Hays Code was enforced as of the previous year.The plot is somewhat thin, but the film moves along pretty well in its 80 minutes. There are some cute amateur acts including an old woman who sings like a chicken, and it was nice to see African-American singer James Miller belt out "I Feel a Song Coming On". The real highlight, though, was Langford performing "I'm in the Mood for Love", and while the song has been covered countless times over the years, this was its first appearance. As a whole, the film is reasonably entertaining, though not very memorable.
Richard Chatten
A cast like this under the direction of Raoul Walsh results in a strangely talky and uninvolving film. The script has its share of amusing wisecracks, most of them delivered by Patsy Kelly; but the end result is very bland and conventional. Walsh shows an interesting liking for visually lining up his three female leads across the screen; and while its always fun to see Alice Faye during her glossy platinum blonde phase, with the mysterious exception of the uncredited James Miller nobody is really given much to do. And it does go on.
kidboots
It didn't matter that most of Frances Langford's films were pretty forgettable, she made them memorable with her heavenly, sultry voice. Even though she had only appeared as herself in a couple of early musical shorts before "Every Night at Eight", she fitted in perfectly with veterans George Raft, Alice Faye and Patsy Kelly. Alice Faye was the female star although Langford was given the role of Susan, the quiet one, who only wants to settle down, marry and live in a house with a white picket fence - a sure sign that she is going to "get the guy" in the closing scene. And what a guy!!! George Raft actually looked as though he was having a lot of fun in this movie. He had all the right moves and seemed just itching to go into a dance routine - he actually did a few steps and turns when he was performing in the amateur hour segment. He had been one of the top dancers in New York in the 20s (that's what Fred Astaire said).For this movie he had to settle for being a band leader. He plays "Tops" Cardona - a dance band leader who is great and knows it!!! He and his band perform on an amateur hour and win by default when Susan, one of a trio of harmonizing singers, faints through lack of food. The girls manage to get through "Speaking Confidentially" and were certain to win. Also featured on the amateur program were Walter Catlett as the Master of Ceremonies and The Three Radio Rogues (called here Romeos) a novelty group who did impersonations of just about everything - radio serials, news reels and famous singers of the day (here they impersonate Dick Powell singing "Don't Say Goodnight" from "Wonder Bar") - in this movie they were ousted from the contest as professionals!!! Susan (after being revived with coffee) sings the soulful "Then You've Never Been Blue" - a song that Langford wrote herself.Alice Faye was going through her brassy Mae West period, (before 20th Century Fox softened her look) so she didn't have a lot to do but add her unique singing styling to the story. Patsy Kelly was fantastic, as usual, her witty wisecracks saved many a film - "he's just like a brother - especially to me"!!! As "The Swanee Sisters" they team up with Tops and his band and hit the big time. "I Feel a Song Coming On" is the film's highlight - there is harmonizing, torch singing (ala Miss Faye) and even a soulful rendition by a fabulous singer James Miller. Of course Susan, being the quiet one, has fallen for Tops - it seems he rubs everyone up the wrong way - everyone except Susan!! Fortunately she gets to sing "I'm In the Mood for Love" - a few times because Tops believes she isn't putting enough feeling into it. Her sultry, mellow, "out of this world" voice helped make this song a standard.Someone to watch for - Harry Barris, who in the 20s was part of a group called "3 Boys and a Piano" which evolved into the Rhythm Boys - one of the boys was Bing Crosby!! Harry plays Tops' livewire pianist, Harry!!Highly, Highly Recommended.
bkoganbing
Almost fifty years before Dream Girls made its Broadway debut, Paramount put out this film about a band-leader and a trio of singers whom he takes under his wing and then gets a little too bossy about their private lives. One wonders if someone at Paramount noticed the resemblance.Every Night At Eight is the title of the film and also the title of a radio show that the trio and the band-leader wind up with. The trio consists of Alice Faye, Frances Langford, and Patsy Kelly who are three girls with humdrum jobs, Faye and Kelly at a switchboard and Langford as a secretary. One day they wait for the boss to leave and decide to make a record on his Dictaphone machine. Unfortunately they're caught and fired.Luckily they get a break on an amateur hour radio show with Walter Catlett in a spoof of the famous Major Edward Bowes Amateur Hour. On the bill that night is band-leader George Raft and his orchestra of unemployed musicians from the New Deal Civil Works Administration. By the way, Catlett's performance is devastating.Raft won the Amateur Hour contest by default because Langford faints from lack of food. Still he recognizes a good thing when he sees it and signs the girls and gives them a name, The Swanee Sisters. Unfortunately just like in Dream Girls he interferes a little too much in their personal lives. Still it all works out in the end, but I won't tell which of them he winds up with.This is Alice Faye's first of two films that she did on loan out from Fox when she was with that studio. Alice gets a good song to sing entitled Speaking Confidentially, but in this film, she's overshadowed vocally by Frances Langford. Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields wrote most of the score for this film including the aforementioned song that Faye sang, but also from this score is I Feel A Song Coming On which the trio does and later Frances Langford sings the song most identified with her, I'm In The Mood For Love. As you can see McHugh and Fields really out did themselves in the writing of the score of this film. Langford also sings another gem, this one written by Ted Fio Riot, Sam Lewis and Joseph Young entitled Then You've Never Been Blue. Were it not for the other two songs, this one would have been the hit of the film.George Raft does nicely in a role that for once doesn't call for him to slug somebody. But the camera betrayed the poor man in this. Watch during the sequence of I Feel A Song Coming On as Raft is conducting the orchestra. He must have been wearing boots with Cuban heels that were two to two and half inches to give him extra height. I'm surprised neither he nor director Raoul Walsh noticed in the rushes and had it edited out.Also in that number is an obbligato version by a black singer named James Miller who is in his one and only film. It's a good rendition and I do wonder what ever happened to him.The best thing that Every Night At Eight has going for it is one of the best musical scores from the Thirties. And the wonderful stars who perform these numbers.
