When you love a musical star, you're not going to care when they make the same movies over and over again with slightly different songs and plots, because you love them! If you love Alice Faye, you won't care that she made several movies with the same supporting cast taking place in the same time period with the same costumes. After all, she looks beautiful in ringlets and corsets!
Hello, Frisco, Hello is distinguishable only for Alice Faye's signature song "You'll Never Know," which won both an Oscar and a Rag for Best Original Song. It's such a tearjerker associated with WWII, it's hard to remember the actual plot of the film takes place in the 1910s rather than the 1940s. Alice, John Payne, Jack Oakie, and Lynn Bari play vaudeville performers, and the very thin plot is merely a way to string along tons of songs performed in fun costumes. Personally, I think the film would have been more affective if it was a modern war romance, so Alice could really sing "You'll Never Know" to a wartime beau. This isn't my favorite of her films, but watching it for her signature song alone is worth it.
And, if you really like this movie, you'll be glad to know you can see the exact same movie with two of the three stars; Hello, Frisco, Hello is a remake of King of Burlesque starring Alice Faye and Jack Oakie. See, musical stars really do recycle their movies!
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