It's Love Again

British actress Jessie Matthews is "Elaine", trying to break into show biz. Meanwhile, the dashing Robert Young is Pete Carlton, who starts making things up for the newspaper ratings. he invents a foreign, famous, talented entertainer who wows every audience. when these two stories collide, wacky things start to happen. It's pretty good, although I could have done with less singing and tap dancing. the rumba about 33 minutes in had a fun syncopation going on... that was good stuff! and the usual amount of silliness and chasing around the mulberry bush, as grandma used to say. Young had worked with so many greats in the 1930s, 1940s, and of course, was Marcus Welby, MD. Co-stars Sonnie Hale, who was actually married to the star Jessie Matthews from 1931 to 1944. sadly, Hale died young in his 50s. Directed by Victor Saville... had started in the silents, and moved into talkies. he and Jessie Matthews worked together on six films. Story by Marion Dix, who had also worked on "Down to their Last Yacht", another fun comedy/adventure. it's all a bit of fun. even with all the tap dancing. and the sound and picture quality are in remarkably good shape, considering its almost 90 years old at this point.

Maybe I am just a tough guy when it comes to reviewing and rating films, but I noticed that a lot of reviewers gave this film a score of 10. 10 is a score I'd associate with films like "Gone With the Wind", "The Godfather" and "Ben Hur"....not with a light and modestly enjoyable British musical. To give it a 10 seems a bit extreme to me.

Peter Carlton (Robert Young) is a gossip columnist with a problem...nothing to write about. So, he invents a celebrity, 'Mrs. Smythe-Smythe', a traveling adventurer who has done practically everything. When Elaine (Jessie Matthews) learns about this, she decides to pose as the adventurer and eventually romance ensues....following lots of song and dance numbers.

This is a very pleasant film made a bit better due to Matthews' cute persona. It's nothing you should rush out to see, but it is pleasant and proves that the British, too, could make charming musicals.

Very fresh, even tho' made over 50 yrs ago.

Peter (Robert Young) and Freddie (Sonnie Hale) invent a celebrity, Mrs Smythe-Smythe, in order to fool the public and sell newspapers. Meanwhile, Elaine Bradford (Jessie Matthews) is looking for a chance to become a celebrity and seems to be getting nowhere with her audition for major theatre producer Raymond (Ernest Milton). So, she pretends to be Mrs Smythe-Smythe in order to get attention. Things go well at first but a rival reporter discovers the truth....

There are many humorous sections in this film, eg, the scene where Peter and Freddie decide on their celebrity, Raymond's exasperation with the theatre (I hate the theatre....I hate the people...). The cast are all good and Sonnie Hale is funny in most of his scenes. The film is Britsh and I was surprised at the quality of both the production and the comedy. It doesn't contain that stupid British humour of the time. It is actually quite funny!

But best of all, the film has Jessie Matthews singing and dancing. The songs are all fine but her dancing is great. She was easily up there with the best that Hollywood could provide at the time. Maybe she was THE best of her time. All the dances are good, my favourite being the sequence where she is trapped into giving a performance of a Hindu temple dance. She has no idea what she is supposed to do and starts somewhat hesitantly but then turns it into the most enjoyable solo tap dance sequence in any film that I can remember seeing. A joy to watch. I was pleasantly surprised by this film.

Jessie Matthews can't get a dancing foot in the door of the West End, so she borrows the character of "Mrs. Smythe-Smythe", a made-up celebrity who's the property of gossip columnist Robert Young. Good thing he's in love with her.

This is one of those movies in which the plot is just a framework to hang musical numbers and jokes on. Jack will have his Jill, and so forth. The jokes are minimal, the dancing ranges from good to excellent, and Young, unlike other co-stars of Miss Matthews, does not seem to be afraid of her. Miss Matthews wears her unlikely costumes with an air of amused disbelief. The sets seem to have been designed by Alfred Junge by looking at MGM fantasia sets and saying "Let's make that bigger. And more spangles."

As a result I found myself distracted by the theater design in the final scenes. I found myself wondering about the people who paid for seats hard up against that runway, would have to turn around, look up, and still see nothing.

Miss Matthews had real talent, but the British film industry seemed to have no idea what to do with her, and loaded her down with ever more unlikely plots, leading men, set designers, costumes, and choreographers, thinking that was how to top the last one. This one works, although the engine sputters occasionally.