Under Your Spell

The sixth and final film of Lawrence Tibbett is a delight from start to finish. It also has the distinction of being the first American film of director Otto Preminger. That this usually stolid directorial style could produce such a breezy romantic musical comedy is a surprise in and of itself.

The plot is adequately described by other reviewers. It's a B programmer coming in at just over one hour, but 20th Century Fox values are high with rapid editing, lots of humor and a Tracy-Hepburn-ish love/hate playfulness in the leads. Tibbett proves himself once again a very fine actor and Wendy Barrie is a good deal of fun as his nemesis. Ratoff is blustery and outrageous as the press agent extraordinaire and Arthur Treacher steals all his scenes as the ever so proper valet.

There are five numbers: the title song UNDER YOUR SPELL appears under the main title and in four reprises; MY LITTLE MULE WAGON; WELCOME HOME/AMIGO comprise the newly written songs by Dietsch and Schwartz. Tibbett performs the famous Mefistofele's aria from Gounod's FAUST, LA VEAU D'OR (The Golden Calf) in full costume on stage and shows himself to be one of opera's true actor singers, despite a costume design modern audiences might giggle at. Finally, there is a brief VOCALIZATIONS scene in a pool with bits of pieces of arias (FIGARO, FIGARO, etc. from BARBER OF SEVILLE).

Tibbett is in top form here and one wonders why he abandoned the film world after this. One of his best performances and one of his best films. Highly recommended.

Under Your Spell is not an exceptional movie by all means, the story is very routine, the film is too short and some of the dialogue doesn't convince. But it is worth seeing. The film does look good, with some nice camera shots particularly the lengthy one at the beginning of the film, and has two great scenes. The courtroom scene with its use of loud, overlapping dialogue is very amusing and possibly Under Your Spell's comic highlight. The other is Lawrence Tibbett singing Le veau d'or, which he performs superbly with an exciting presence and very controlled singing both in the upper and lower registers. I quite liked the costumes too, Tibbett's Mephistopheles costume makes him every bit the imposing demon he is meant to be. Preminger directs admirably, but while Wendy Barrie and Arthur Treacher give fine support, the music(consisting of three songs written for the film and old favourites Largo al factotum, which is very lively and entertaining in performance even if the bravissimo section is slightly rushed, and Le veau d'or) and Tibbett steal the film seamlessly. Overall, a good and underrated watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This film is a pretty routine affair, with none of the participants going out of their way to do anything special. It is Otto Preminger's first English language film, and contains a scene toward the end in a courtroom, one of Preminger's favorite settings. Here, the scene is played for laughs and is easily the film's best.

Lawrence Tibbett was a star of the Metropolitan Opera who tried to bridge the gap between popular and classical music. He was also actually a film star in the early days of talking pictures, being nominated for an Academy award for best actor for 1930's The Rogue Song. Making this B-picture was an indication of how far he sunk, and how low his previous picture was received at the box office, 1935's Metropolitan. How he could have ever been a star at all is a bit of a mystery, as he does lack a bit of charisma, not to mention looks.

Wendy Barrie fairs much better in this movie. In fact, a long close-up of her as she reclines and listens to one of Tibbett's songs on record, is the most beautiful shot in the movie. She was a gorgeous woman and it's a shame she wasn't in more vehicles, be they A or B films. She's great here.

Gregory Ratoff and Arthur Treacher, each with their respective schtick, provide adequate support, which very nearly borders on the annoying.