First a Girl

First a Girl (1935)

Musicals in the 1930s were stiff mash-ups of song and dance numbers until the geometric fantasies of Busby Berkeley and then the narrative Fred Astaire movies, both in beginning in 1933 and 1934. This is a weird 1935 British affair that's well-enough filmed to remind you of Berkeley but is tepid by comparison. And as for plot, it takes awhile to get to that, following some decent and sometimes almost surreal dance/fashion scenes.

This is, in short, the original movie version of "Victor/Victoria." Once you get into the story, which will still be interrupted by old-fashioned feeling dance numbers, you'll get the cross-dressing stuff. All in fun. The leading woman (who does the switching, just as Julie Andrews did in the famous remake) is Jessie Matthews, who is a sort of Ginger Rogers type with a doll face. It's the doll face, highly feminine, that removes some of the credibility of the story--she does look slightly like a boy, when dressed as a man, but it doesn't quite carry. And of course, the point is to fool at least the other characters. The leading man Victor, played by Sonnie Hale, is also a problem, at least for audiences today, because he lacks charm, or sincerity, or pathos, or whatever might carry him through along with Matthews. He is meant to be the set-up for what "Victoria" has to do. But he's usually too dull for his own good, or he tries too hard. Matthews, at least, is purely charming and delightful. By the final number, however, when the tables are turned once again, Victor comes into his own. You might see it coming, but then it's divine.

It gives nothing away to say that the changing identities ruse is eventually suspected and the tension then begins. It's all done with a bit of stiffness, and filmed with uniform bright intensity, which makes it all a bit superficial, but is still enjoyable.

Jessie Matthews is a song-and-dance girl who loses her job and befriends an actor, Victor, played by Sonnie Hale, who dreams of being a serious stage actor, doing Shakespeare, being Hamlet and all that good stuff, but in the meantime has to make ends meet by being a female impersonator. When he's down to his last dollar and gets his latest call, he has a cold and no voice. The only possible solution is for her to keep his appointment. As fate would have it, Mr. Whozzit is in the audience and says he'll sign him, her, him – because he's so good at impersonating a woman. Also, in the audience is a princess, played by Anna Lee, of "General Hospital" and "The Sound of Music" fame, and her fiancé, played by Griffith Jones. But he came in late and thought she was a girl, until the end of the number, when her/his wig came off. Shocked by his attraction to another man, he means to know if he is a he or she is a she or what. Obviously, the precursor to Blake Edwards' smash hit, Victor/Victoria, starring his wife, Julie Andrews, this film is just as enticing, charming, and lively. I was afraid this was going to be one of the those forgettable 1930s movie musicals with stagy and tedious musical numbers, but this was out-of-this-world great. It's my favorite "new film" now. Having seen and loved Victor/Victoria beforehand, which is why I got this to begin with, helps. But neither one takes away from the other. There are slight variations on how it's discovered and a few details. But this outing is filled with flirtatious and sexy fun. Discover the stars Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale, who were married in real life and enjoy her being "First a Girl" and then a guy!

The premise-a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman-is the same, but Blake Edwards considerably revised the particulars for his 1982 version of this 1935 Jessie Matthews musical, which was in turn taken from a 1933 German romp. Matthews is a stagestruck clerk who loses her job and fills in, in a rather contrived plot development, for female impersonator Sonnie Hale, a would-be Shakespearean actor who's putting on a dress to earn a guinea or two. She triumphs, and soon she's touring a surprisingly location-shot Europe as Victor. Matthews is, as ever, charming, a pleasing singer and a marvelous dancer. But with her constant lipstick and eye shadow and plucked eyebrows, the notion that she could fool all of Europe with her gender is absurd, and the screenplay has to go through some strenuous contortions to correctly match her with the dashing Griffith Jones, whose fiancee, a platinum-blonde Anna Lee, winds up with Hale, who wraps up the movie by doing an elaborate production number in drag, and isn't as hilarious as he thinks he is. It's pretty jolly, lavish by 1930s British musical standards, and a bright showcase for Matthews, but I think I prefer Victor/Victoria, and I think I buy Julie Andrews as a boy more than I do Matthews.

this charming British musical, the first English version of ' victor victoria', can boast a swell cast,pungent lines and delightful musical routines. the story evolves around a showgirl pretending to be a boy and playing a girl on stage. Quite confusing, but that's where comes all the fun. Even if Jessie Matthews has star billing and the leading role, Sonnie Hale is outstanding and the credit for the enchantment is mainly all his. Their dance routines cannot compete with Fred and Ginger, but their facetiousness and buffoonery deserves our chortles. An old fashioned charm emanates from this movie, unfortunately not very well known.

Coming between EVERGREEN (considered to be Jessie Matthews' best film) and IT'S LOVE AGAIN (my own favourite) and made by the same team, I thought this might be fantastic but it was just 'good' rather than 'very good.'

It is still a lovely, happy picture with some really spectacular dance numbers. It's stylishly directed as usual by the maestro, Victor Saville and as a big, flashy musical it's much more impressive than what Hollywood was doing at the time (with the obvious exception of what Zanuck had overseen a few years earlier at Warners.)

Although it adds to the film's overall silliness, what is completely and utterly impossible for your mind to process is that just by cutting her hair, anyone could possibly believe that Jessie Matthews was a man. She was unquestionably the prettiest woman in movies back then (if not, the prettiest woman in the world?) The proposition is beyond sheer madness especially since she doesn't even change her voice, her makeup or her characteristic sensuous style of dancing.

What also seems impossible is that in real life this stunningly beautiful actress was married to Sonny Hale (her co star). Being kind, the nicest comment about his appearance could be be that he didn't have film star looks! However you can start to see what she saw in him. He does have an unusually engaging and warm personality which comes across really strongly in this picture. You might not think so at first but the more you watch him, the funnier he gets.

This is a great uplifting slice of joyful escapism. It's an absolute, absolute must for any fans of spectacular 1930s musicals and silly old-fashioned farces. For those of you unfamiliar with the goddess known as Jessie Matthews however, this one isn't as likely to make you fall in love with her as much as some of her other pictures.