The musical star

This chapter looks at Power’s work within the genre of musicals. Despite his lack of singing and dancing ability, he was cast as the lead in five musicals between 1937 and 1939, although he made no more films in this genre after the decade ended. To compensate for his lack of musical talent, Power was cast opposite female stars who were skilled musical performers, being paired with ice-skating champion Sonja Henie twice and singer-actress Alice Faye three times. This move by Twentieth Century-Fox demonstrates the actor’s appeal to contemporary audiences at a time when musicals were extremely popular and its plans for his maximum exposure. Power’s characterisations in all five musicals are slightly different, some building on his already established screen image and others advancing it either slightly or significantly. Indeed, while his films with Henie have many similarities to his comedic pairings with Young, Faye provides his most sensual screen pairing to date, suggesting a new sexual maturity to his image at the end of the 1930s.