With the talk about Rose of Washington Square, I pulled it out this weekend and watched it. I have the VHS version which came with the trailer and two outtakes.
I really do like the pairing of Ty and Alice Fay. They do very well together, especially in their more argumentative moments (like in Old Chicago--some racey scenes there!). But very endearing in their tender moments. Both are very believable together.
The DVD has a new extra, a featurette about the background and making of the movie and the real-life people (Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein) that the movie's Rose and Bart are based on. (The movie versions -- as well as the Fanny and Nick of Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand) were very cleaned up from the real life people. Especially Bart/Nick. The real Nick was a genuine creep.
Anyway, this featurette was very enjoyable as are all these Fox featurettes. I really appreciate Fox taking the time to make these -- they do these for many of their classic film releases. We've been watching the Charlie Chan sets from Fox and they have some really interesting extras about the history of the various locales Charlie goes to, as well as the people both in front of and behind the camera.
I especially loved the scene where Rose is singing "My Man" while Bart watches secretly from the audience, both of them getting all weepy. :) I especially liked Ty's holding his cap in his hands and squeezing it tightly, as a way to express the intensity of Bart's emotion. It's that kind of actorly detail I really appreciate in a performance.
Also enjoyed Ty's piano "playing"... a precursor to his amazing finger-synching in The Eddy Duchin Story! ;)
Peachtreegal--I agree that is a very moving scene and Ty does a great job of Bart's desolation.
When I watch the movies of this era, I see where many of these actors/actresses were originally legit threatre and I think their ways of emoting and articulating go back to their experience on stage where everything much reach to the back row of the theatre and beyond. Many of the film performances of this time transcend the screen similar to transcending the stage. (Sometimes it also lent to overacting--maybe a little too much for film.)
Today's films are mostly motion and dialogue. Not so much the art of the 30s and 40s.
Would it be safe to assume that Funny Girl was almost a "remake" of Rose of Washington Square?
Lastly, I studied piano and Ty does a very convincing job--I know he practiced very hard for Eddie Duchin albeit on a silent keyboard.
Still a class act as we speak almost 50 years after his death!
