Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) is a young musician with a lot of potential ahead of him. His aunt and professor both expect him to go on to become a fine musician, but secretly, the style of music Roger loves playing the most is not the most respectable of styles at the time. After playing a recital for a bunch of high society types, he and a bunch of fellow musicians head over to audition at a seedy saloon. The same night, Stella Kirby (Alice Faye) also comes to the saloon looking for work as a singer. As the band is getting ready to audition, they realize their sheet music has disappeared, so they end up auditioning with the same song Stella had brought to sing — “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” As the band plays, Stella seizes the opportunity and starts singing with the band and the audition is a big success and the bartender gives Roger the nickname of Alexander.
Stella isn’t fond of Roger and Roger isn’t fond of Stella, but their bandmate Charlie (Don Ameche) talks them into sticking together. The band starts performing under the name Alexander’s Ragtime Band and it isn’t long before they start becoming more and more popular. But behind the scenes, Charlie is falling in love with Stella while Stella and Roger have fallen in love with each other without even realizing it. Once they do realize how they feel about each other, Charlie steps aside and Roger and Stella continue seeing each other as their band grows in status.
Their happiness comes crashing down when Stella catches the eye of a prominent talent agent who wants to turn her into a star — but only her. Roger kicks her out of the band and Charlie leaves with her. While Roger goes into the military during World War I, Stella becomes a big star in her own right and marries Charlie. Roger is heartbroken when he hears the news, but tries to move on with Jerry (Ethel Merman), the new singer for his band. Jerry realizes he doesn’t love her and Charlie realizes Stella will always love Roger, but with years of bitterness between them, do Roger and Stella still have a chance?
Now, this is a movie with a whole lot of star power! Not only do you have Tyrone Power and Alice Faye, both on top of their games, there’s Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley, Jean Hersholt, and of course, a whole lot of Irving Berlin songs. The love triangle between Roger, Charlie, and Stella was pretty formulaic, but like I said yesterday when I wrote about The Bride Wore Red, a movie can be formulaic and still be worth watching if it’s produced effectively enough. The same holds true for Alexander’s Ragtime Band. It may not be anything mind blowing, but with a cast like that and all those Irving Berlin songs, it’s still good fun. This would be a kind of movie that I put on in the background while I’m busy doing other things because the music makes it nice just to listen to.