Leicht französisch

To totally disagree with the previous reviewers, I think that this, together with all other early Sirk movies I've seen, is nothing short of staggering. Filled with one-liners worthy of a Howard Hawks/Ben Hecht movie, it's not only early evidence of Sirk's genius for space and light and shadow, but also a highly sophisticated and perverse rendition of the Pygmalion theme. It's a measure of Sirk's genius that the characters, though formulaic, spring to life as in a Greek tragedy - or a Raoul Walsh, CB de Mille etc. movie- through the sheer strength of stereotype. Here, as elsewhere, Sirk is a bit like Frank Sinatra: cool and detached on surface, but revealing underneath the filth and the fury ;> I saw it today (6APR07) at the Film Forum NYC and it blew me away. Someone release it in DVD fast, it's an (to my knowledge) unsung masterpiece.

Don Ameche was on the decline in his career and Dorothy Lamour still trying to acheive stardom outside those "Road" movies when this movie was made. It tries to borrow from Ameche's earlier hits with Alice Faye but the formula does not work here because Lamour is no Faye. And she is expected to carry it. Supporting performances from Page and Kennard is good but not enough. If it were made today, it would make a good video rental.

I knew nothing of this film, but watching it one immediately sees the extraordinary quality of the direction and production.

I didn't know that Dorothy Lamour began her career as a singer for a big band and later sang on radio for network shows. She was Miss New Orleans in 1931 and her heritage included being Spanish. Looking at her she reminds one of Katy Jurado and could have played roles for Latin characters. In this film I think she was especially effective when she played "herself", Mary the carny girl. The production numbers were excellent and indicated the direction dance numbers would be presented in the future. Don Ameche was excellent as always.

So this film was a very pleasant surprise.

This is a remake of Lowe, Sothern starrer Let's fall in love (1933), which itself is one of many adaptations of Shaw's Pygmalion. Agreed that Shaw too had been influenced by, but that was minimal, from the original mythical story of the same name, unlike these, and many other set of movies. A perfectionist Director Ameche (Lowe) - need an European actress French (Swedish) when the star is indisposed (walks out) due to his tough attitude walks out. Trying to get away from it all, he visits a carnival, and finds a girl, who fits the bill - only then he finds she is a full blooded American, nothing French (Swedish) about her. He puts her under Language and Culture training and then springs the surprise on the unsuspecting studio, and public - who laps her up. By the time the cat is out of the bag, the movie has progressed too far to call it a day. In addition the financiers are elated, the lie exposed to/by the press had been a free publicity for heroine and movie. But by then the director is fired and with her love out of studio, heroine sulks (disappears). Within ( ) is the 1933 movie.

Though it was pre-Maisie - but the role was almost similar to the Maisie roles Sothern was to play later - and she fitted perfectly in it. And despite being partial to Ameche, I found Lowe much more convincing. The tough ruthless slave-driver might not have been Ameche's cup of tea.

But the main fault in this version wasn't actors. Lamour wasn't too far behind Sothern in that department, at least in this movie. It was in conceptualization/ direction. The clamour for Swedish actress was understood (Garbo was the Queen then - and with her neighbor, Dietrich etc, one could justify the attraction of Swedish Miss'. But in this era - Bardot or her neighbors, Loren, Gina etc were yet to be born (on screen) - in fact another lovely Swede, Bergman was still reigning - though about to go Italian. In addition to these, critical factors, which was necessary for the movie, there were quite a few other unconvincing episodes (e.g. Lamour's first meeting with the producer (Willard Parker). She had been trained to be french, she knows why, so she simply won't be acting American, while interacting with an unknown person, that too at home.

My recommendation is to watch the far superior 1933 movie.

Adorable movie with some beautifully shot scenes. I enjoyed it and my benchmark for this category is the Tracy-Hepburn movies. It is entertaining because of the period decor, costume. The plot is one of a romantic comedy.