Ready Willing & Able (Keeler)

The young actor, Ross Alexander, died before this movie was released, so his top billing with Ruby Keeler was taken down to fifth billing because Warner Brothers was worried that his suicide would take over the press surrounding the film. If one didn't know this history, you would simply raise an eyebrow and wonder why the leading man of the movie received such bad billing. He gives a good performance here--as he always did. He was a rising star at Warners and always got good reviews in the press for his many supporting roles. Ruby doesn't have enough dancing to do and this "musical" is hardly musical, though it is a backstager in the tradition of "42nd Street." As a straight drama, it's a good film and I enjoyed the performances. Alexander has a song to sing in it, but he's dubbed, which is why this film might feel like something Dick Powell turned down. Still, Ross Alexander at the center of this story, along with help from very good supporting players, make this very appealing. The finale musical number involving Ruby dancing on a giant tap-writer is pretty good stuff!

Warner Bros. assembled the best songwriters and composers in the 30s. Just about every musical had at least one or two catchy numbers with ingenious choreography.Many of these songs I first heard in the WB cartoons from the same era. The Schlesinger studio had to plug a song for merchandising purposes. It’s cool to see where these songs came from and hear the actual lyrics.The featured number here is Too Marvelous For Words. Ruby Keeler performs a catchy number with a tap dance chorus, Handy With Your Feet.While the Busby Berkeley films such as The Gold Diggers films are often shown and discussed, there are several other Warner musicals that aren’t as well known, but really warrant more exposure. Thankfully Warner Archive has made this and several other obscurities accessible to those who wish to view them.An underrated and enjoyable musical.

So much fun to see the climax sequence with all the dancers on a gaunt keyboard

This is a fantastic film from 1937. Not only is the acting actually quite good from the major players, The soundtrack is to die for. The score by the great Richard A. Whiting and Johnny Mercer is one of the best from this era of film making. The timeless "Too Marvelous for Words" still ranks as one of the best movie songs in Hollywood history. This is definitely worth seeing.

v.very good seller i had the dvd very soonery good musical with giant tapewriter at the end of the movie. in french, jàime tout du dvd une veritable pièce de collection. merci, thank you.

While never a great actress, Ruby Keeler appeared in a few very entertaining films with her husband, Al Jolson. Unfortunately, this wasn't one of them. It's a bad film with a bad script and uniformly bad acting. Save your money!

you can skip this one

I love old musicals.This one is superb.

SIMPLY DELIGHTFUL WITH A GREAT MUSICAL NUMBER JUST BEFORE THE END. NO MASTERPIECE BUT SOMETHING DESTINED FOR ASSURING A PERFECT TIME TO FORGET SORROWS.Ernesto