Wonderfully offbeat film!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is one of two films Bing Crosby-a Paramount contract player-made on loan to Universal. In this one, he's originally a telegram singer before getting fired and becoming a crooning taxi driver. He's engaged to Joan Blondell and has Mischa Auer for a roommate. Oh, and there's a baby involved. I'll stop there and just say that the songs sung by Bing are entertaining especially one number taking place in a café where both the female cooks and some waitresses join in. There's plenty of funny lines and mannerisms especially from Auer. And this baby, whose name is Sandy, is sure cute! Really, this was a breezy 90 minutes that didn't test my patience. So on that note, East Side of Heaven is worth a look.

"East Side of Heaven" isn't a particularly deep or fancy film, but it is fun and is a nice little family film. It's so nice, it's almost worth giving this one an 8.Bing Crosby plays a struggling singer. He can't find a good job, so he first takes one as a singing telegram man and then as, oddly, a singing taxi driver. During the course of his job, he meets a desperate young lady and her obnoxious and very rich father-in-law (C. Aubry Smith). The old man is determined to take the child away--even though the mother is very competent. So, in desperation, she hides the cute kid with a friend--Bing and his roommate (Mischa Auer). The plot doesn't get a whole lot deeper than that, but it helped that Joan Blondell was on hand to play Bing's fiancée and that the baby was so freakin' adorable. All in all, fluff--but incredibly enjoyable, well written and well made fluff.By the way, this film is included on the same disc as Bing's "If I Had My Way"--a film that is even better! A wonderful DVD and one worth having in your collection.

East Side of Heaven, like most of Bing Crosby's 1930's vehicles, is mild, but very enjoyable entertainment. This one may rise a bit above the others because Crosby, on loan-out from Paramount to Universal, operates with a different and perhaps more sophisticated cast than usual. Not the least of which is that gorgeous, buxom hunk of womanhood, comedienne and fine actress Joan Blondell co-starring as his fiancé. The inimitable, delightfully and bizarrely funny Mischa Auer is on board as Bing's wacky, bug-eyed room mate. Auer, known as "the Mad Russian", had by this movie's 1939 release become a fixture in the period's screwball comedies. Labelled a stereotype by the present generation's politically correct doctrinaires, he was anything but. He was in fact a one of a kind comedian whose act, which has to be experienced rather than described, enlivened every picture he was in. Jerome Cowan contributes one of his typical nasty slickster, a radio gossip monger, while tall, distinguished C. Aubrey Smith adds a touch of class as a gruff millionaire trying to find his grand baby.And here we come to the real attraction of the show, aside from Crosby's crooning. Baby Sandy, the most utterly adorable, cute, well-behaved, and cuddly baby every produced by American motherhood, I'm sure. Even and old grouch like me couldn't resist her. The winsome kid is being kept by Crosby, a singing taxi driver, while the mother tries to get matters straighted out with her hubby, Smith's ne'er-do-well son. That with expected complications comprises most of this likable musical comedy's fluffy plot. Never mind, the show is carried by Bing's mellow singing, Auer's hilarious antics, Joan's big, blue-eyed good looks, and of course that precious little Sandy baby.Crosby's numbers included "Sing A Song Of Sunbeams", the warbling cabbie's theme song, the title song, sung at the end, and "Hang Your Hat On a Hickory Limb". This last is the best, as it expands into an elaborate song and dance number involving everyone in a large diner. Three plump old dolls, who must have started show biz in the Gay Nineties, sing a trio that almost steals the show from Bing, and a dancing chef-drummer uses everything in the kitchen for an instrument.Director David Butler, who also produced and wrote the story, guides all with his usual smooth, sure hand. He was in his element here. Through the 'thirties, 'forties, and 'fifties, before turning to television, he directed with consummate skill dozens of similar light weight but fun musicals and comedies. But he occasionally demonstrated versatility, as when he shifted gears to direct (with some uncredited help from Raoul Walsh) one of my favorite westerns San Antonio (1945 -- see my review).East Side of Heaven may have been a cheap production, but sets are first rate and the black and white cinematography sumptuous. It has the same smooth, polished look and sound of all big studio productions of the late 1930's through the late 1940's. Thoroughly enjoyable entertainment from America's favorite crooner and Old Hollywood's Golden Era.

"East Side of Heaven" is a fable of New York City with a breezy Bing Crosby as a singer (first a singing telegrapher then a taxi troubadour) whose life is complicated by a friend's marital woes and a baby.Joan Blondell has a grand showcase for her loveliness and her comedy chops as Bing's fiancée. Mischa Auer steals every scene he is in as the helpful, loafer pal.The most adorable tot in movies, Baby Sandy, is the plot hinge upon which swings a tyrannical grandfather (C. Aubrey Smith), a worried mother (Irene Hervey) and a grandly unlikable radio host (Jerome Cowan).You'll wish there really was such a place as the Frying Pan Cafe where waiters and cooks join guests in song. "Hang Your Heart on a Hickory Limb" is just one of the infectious numbers that add the sparkle to this movie.A truly entertaining comedy-musical the whole family will enjoy.