Antonius Block A passable enough movie but all over the map, and while it was a vehicle for the Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler tandem, I liked it more for their supporting cast, featuring Hugh Herbert as a bumbling millionaire and Joan Blondell as a gold-digger. The musical numbers are mildly entertaining, but tap dancer Paul Draper lacks charisma and Ruby Keeler's singing is flat. I liked "Boulevardier from the Bronx" performed by Blondell and Jack Oakie more, as goofy as he was, and perhaps influenced by Blondells's décolleté. It's not horrible or anything, but you can do better. I suggest trying a movie like Footlight Parade from 1933 instead.

TheLittleSongbird Of Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell's collaborations together, 'Colleen' is, along with 'Shipmates Forever', their weakest. This is not in any way saying that it's bad, because it isn't.It's just that the pair did make much stronger films, that had more memorable songs and much better choreographed dance numbers, especially '42nd Street', 'Footlight Parade' and 'Goldiggers of 1933'. 'Dames' is also great fun, and 'Flirtation Walk' has enough charm and likability to make up for the flawed story.There are numerous pleasures here. Joan Blondell and Jack Oakie come very close to stealing the film. Blondell is a bundle of joy with a natural screen presence and irresistible charm and Oakie is a lot of fun. Their scene together is a sheer delight and for me the highlight of 'Colleen'.Keeler and Powell themselves don't disappoint either. Powell sings beautifully and is very likable, and while singing is not a strong suit of hers (and that to be honest is putting it mildly) Keeler fares better at dancing than in a few of her previous films and also has the charm and likability factor. While none of the songs are hits, they are still very pleasant and more than listenable, certainly deserving of better dance direction.Didn't care for Hugh Herbert personally. He does have some amusing moments, but it just felt too much of The Hugh Herbert Show and, while some parts are entertaining, his broad and effete style of comedy did get tiresome. The script has the odd nice moment, but overall it's pretty feeble. The story is both silly and flimsy, yes even for a musical comedy.One always says that musicals shouldn't be judged for their stories but it does depend though on how well executed the rest of the elements are, and 'Colleen' was an example of one where some things were done well and others left wanting. Paul Draper is like agreed a minor Fred Astaire without the elegance or grace, and he shows severe limitations as an actor, even in his dance with Keeler Keeler outperforms him by a country mile.Lastly, the choreography and dance direction were seriously uninspired and leaden, am aware that you can't have Busby Berkeley all the time but the dance direction and how things were choreographed had such a lack of imagination that they were crying out for his involvement.All in all, pleasant if bland. Watchable, but this should have been a better swansong collaboration overall for Keeler and Powell. 6/10 Bethany Cox

bkoganbing Despite the fact that Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are the stars in their seventh and final screen pairing, the key character here is Hugh Herbert. That unfortunately is Colleen's problem.There are times when Hugh Herbert can be extremely funny, but a whole film really shouldn't be built around him. You can overdose on Hugh Herbert.In the Road to Zanzibar one of the gags, but far from the whole film involved Crosby and Hope getting involved with eccentric millionaire Eric Blore. He goes around just giving the family fortune away and sells them a diamond mine for a nominal cost. Like Herbert in Colleen, Blore has his keepers. But the whole film isn't built around him.In this film the family business is run by Dick Powell for Herbert who is his uncle and Herbert's sister Louise Fazenda. They've hired a keeper in Berton Churchill who breaks away from his usual stuffy banker type and here is the essentially decent, but eternally put upon keeper. Herbert gets involved with a couple of sharpies, Jack Oakie and Joan Blondell who take advantage of this nut job to rake in some big bucks. Ruby Keeler is the bookkeeper at a dress shop that Herbert buys for Blondell and the Powell/Fazenda/Herbert family are now guarantors of all the debts owed and accruing.Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote some nice songs for the film that did not boast any hits at all. Dick Powell never even bothered to commercially record any of them. The finale had dancer Paul Draper cleverly worked in to partner with Ruby while Powell sang. It was always a problem with them as a team, Ruby's flat singing and the fact you'll notice Powell never danced in any of their films. Colleen is pleasant enough entertainment, but the Powell/Keeler combination was definitely on the wane here.

raskimono I cannot find much to say about this movie. For a supposedly WB event Dick Powell/Ruby Keeler, it is very cheap looking as if all the money went into extravagant looking Bubsy Berkeley inspired number that is dull. Worse of all, it is not funny and the songwriting fail to deliver one memorable song (they all sound the same; heck they seem as though they were recycled from other Dick powell hits). This was the end of Dick powell, once this movie seriously underperformed. (I don't know if it bombed). The plot - what there is of it - has Uncle Cedric who is pulled in by a golddigger,Joan Blondell and is taken away from the focus of his business, by the golddigger who uses sex -it's implied - to make her a daughter and thus an inheritor. Dick Powell is the one brought in to look over the business and falls for his Uncle's secretary, Ruby Keeler -Dick and Ruby were married at the time - and snoop out the golddiggers. His relationship with this lower class girll who is also an upcoming fashion designer creates a scandal and you can figure out the rest. This film contains a lot of bad crooning and extremely ineffeciently displaying of ugly tap dancing. Dick Powell is much better in Hollywood Hotel. But avoid Cowboy in Brooklyn and Going places. It wouldn't be long before Dickie's contract was not renewed an d he left WB.