The Midshipmaid

The 24 year old John Mills made his screen debut in this film. He was quite a bland actor in the 30's and became the chosen representative of the English middle classes in the 40's. Watching him in this film was like having a sandwich with no filling in it.

A short, basic comedy crossing romance with a "hey kids let's put on the show right here" premise. The star is Jessie Matthews who is engaging and Claud Allister is fun as a chinless wonder type. Some of the comedy is a bit dated and wearing but all well intentioned. Notable for the screen debut of John Mills and George Zucco has a small, featured role. Nigel Bruce is well featured and is good value as a rather miscast marine, Major Spink, . At one point he is the back legs of a panto horse but displays twinkly jocularity throughout.

Why would I watch this again? Because I think I've fallen in love with Jessie Matthews.

...but back to this particular film; the premise is that a Royal Navy ship's crew are to put on a concert but none of the crew have any talent. That's the joke, ok, not a very funny one but it makes for interesting viewing such as Dr Watson being a pantomime horse - when else would you will watch three whole minutes of Nigel Bruce dancing as a pantomime horse? The concert is therefore meant to be bad but that ethos seems to have imbued this whole film.....it's a bad film. It is however so bad that it's almost good - or at least weirdly entertaining. The acting isn't what most people would call acting - reading words would describe that more aptly. Direction cannot be criticised because there does not appear to have been any so the overall result is that this looks more like a rehearsal than a motion picture from a major film studio.

The other strand to the story concerns a crusty old politician visiting this ship which is inevitably full of sex-starved sailors. Inexplicably he brings along his beautiful daughter and because the script seems to have been written by one of those same sex-starved sailors, this gorgeous dream-girl spends the rest of the film flirting with whichever sailor is walking past. The beautiful daughter is of course the beautiful Jessie Matthews.

This is probably her worst picture so anyone not familiar with her should definitely not start with this. This is a picture strictly for the converted but even for us fans her acting feels forced, her character is completely one-dimensional, she's not actually very good but none of that matters too much. Just her joyous, effervescent screen presence is all that's needed to make this stupid, badly made un-funny comedy peculiarly entertaining.

Although Clara Bow is remembered these days as the 'it girl' really nobody had 'it' as much as Jessie Matthews. What's so intriguing and dizzying about her is how your mind tries to reconcile that face which is the absolute epitome of innocence, sweetness and purity with her sexually charged, strong willed and naturally vibrant personality. That dichotomy coupled with her well-publicised love life including sleeping with the future Edward VIII, sex scandals and stories about her wearing see-through clothing is like finding out that Snow White has made a porn film. She was the ultimate sex symbol of the 1930s and although this particular film is terrible, her star quality just about manages to make it quite fun.

Early starring musical for Jessie Matthews (her 3rd talkie) has her as a politician's daughter who goes aboard a naval vessel with her father to inspect the ship. She meets some officers and ends up in a show.

Nice song "One Little Kiss from You" is sung a few times, and Matthews does another number as part of a sextette. Of course she's in disguise so her crabby father (Frederick Kerr) won't know she's in the show. Slim plot and lack of more music make this one of Matthews' weaker efforts, but she looks great and still displays that pep she was famous for.

The film is probably better remembered for the screen debut of John Mills. Others in the cast include Anthony Bushell, Nigel Bruce, A.W. Baskcomb as Pook, Claud Allister, Basil Sydney, George Zucco, and Joyce Kirby and Wilma Vanne as Dora and Cora the twins.

Jessie Matthews was a rising star when this film was made.It is clear that the director decided that the best way to film it was putting the camera down and not move it as if it was viewing proceedings from the middle of the stalls,so don't look for cinematic ingenuity here.It is clearly a star vehicle for Jessie,with many other rising actors in her wake.These have been mentioned in another review.however I was very surprised to learn that Steve Condos,one of the famous Condos brothers was one half of the stage horse.Did he do the dancing for Nigel Bruce I wonder.Nack in the days before his hair turned grey and he became Dr Watson.The last part of the film is essentially a revue withs some very strange acts,not lease the 2 prim and proper "gels" who come out with a rather wild dance.