Evergreen

Wonderful 30s British musical based on a show by Rodgers and Hart that never played on Broadway.

Jessie Matthews stars as Harriet Green, the toast of the London stage in the early 1900s when she suddenly retires and disappears in South Africa because she has an illegitimate child by a man who is blackmailing her. 30 years later a young actress is making the rounds and is discovered because she is a dead ringer for old Harriet. Of course she is the daughter.

But a desperate producer (Sonnie Hale) and a publicity man (Barry McKay) come up with a plan to foist the girl off as the original, ageless Harriet (evergreen). She is a sensation. But her success causes all sorts or problems when the blackmailer returns and when McKay falls in love with her (after he has been proclaimed to be her son!).

Fanciful plot is far-fetched, but the cast is excellent in this terrific musical by two American greats. And Jessie Matthews is superb. She was a major musical comedy star of the British stage and screen from the 20s through WW II. And she is incandescent here in her best film.

This is maybe the most Hollywood-looking musical the Brits produced in the 1930s. Matthews has one great production number when as old Harriet she does a succession of dance numbers, each one going back ten years to the 1890s. In between each number she flips a giant hour glass to denote the passage of time.

Matthews was a great dancer and singer and in EVERGREEN she was never better. She has another great number in "Dancing on the Ceiling" in which she shows her famous high kicks and arched back moves. Hale (her husband) and McKay are also good. Betty Balfour as Maudie has an hysterical bit when she does an aria from "Rigoletto." My VHS copy has bad sound but it's a terrific old film and a chance to see the legendary Jessie Matthews in her best role.

Evergreen gives us a chance to see Jessie Matthews who starred on stage as well as screen in the United Kingdom in the role that made her a star. So few stars of the 30s and 40s were able to recreate their roles so we are fortunate indeed.

Charles Cochran of the London stage, the British equivalent of Florenz Ziegfeld hired American songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart to write the score for Evergreen. As it is in Hollywood the Gaumont- British only retained a few Rodgers&Hart songs, most importantly Dancing On A Ceiling which was Matthews's first big hit. Some British musical bits and new songs written by British songwriter Harry Woods were written for this film including Over My Shoulder which also became identified with Jessie Matthews.

Only later on after Matthews prime years did she go to Hollywood for films turning down a lot of offers. I understand that Gaumont-British also tried to get Fred Astaire to co-star with no success. She and Astaire would have been marvelous.

The story has Matthews first appearing on the London stage in the Victorian era and becoming a smash success. But the impending birth of a daughter out of wedlock forces her to retire to South Africa. Going to the Thirties Matthews as her own daughter is seeking employment when publicity agent Barry MacKay convinces producer/star Sonnie Hale to feature the daughter as her ageless mother making a comeback.

Unfortnunate her low life of a sperm donor Hartley Power shows up and threatens to blow the whole thing wide open. This is a Fedora like scheme played a little more lightly.

Matthews sings and dances divinely especially with Sonnie Hale with whom she was involved in real life and who became her second husband.

Rightly so Evergreen is considered the best British musical from that era. I haven't seen better and it holds up well today.

"Evergreen" was an original Rodgers and Hart creation, both in story and music, successfully produced on stage in 1930 in Glasgow and London by British impresario, C. B. Cochran. Gaumont British Picture loosely adapted the show into a Hollywood style musical in this 1934 version. Three Rodgers and Hart songs were retained, most notably, "Dancing on the Ceiling." In addition, three songs by the American composer, Harry Woods were interpolated, including the movie's main theme, "When You've Got a Little Springtime in Your Heart."

Fortunately, for lovers of 1930's musicals, Evergreen's breezy plot, lilting music, and stylish dancing routines all come together to highlight the talents and beauty of British musical queen, Jessie Matthews. The willowy, long-legged Mathews is a singing and dancing revelation, as charming and lovable a musical comedy heroine as ever seen on either side of the Atlantic.

This movie is a joy in every way. As refrained by composer Woods: "And each happy scene will be Evergreen as the sweetest morning in June, when you've got a little springtime in your heart."

This film appeared more frequently on Channel 13 in the late 1980s than it does today. I'm glad it has been transferred to DVD, and I hope to find it one day.

The film was based on a musical comedy of the same name that was composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart but produced in London. It starred the rising musical comedy star of the 1930s and early 1940s Jessie Matthews. Married to Sonny Hale (who appears in the film as her producer) the story was about how Matthews takes part in a mild swindle. She is the granddaughter of a turn-of-the-century stage star, a beauty of that day, and Matthews pretends she is the same woman who has retained her youthful looks (but has grayish hair) due to a "fountain of youth" concoction. Hence the title, EVERGREEN. The show had many R.& H. tunes in it, but the best one was "Dancing on the Ceiling" which is still a standard.

In the movie, Jessie Matthews only pretends to be her mother, but the story is relatively the same. The complications involve her increasing romance with her publicist, her having to keep up the fiction of her reawakening an older romance with the aristocrat who romanced her mother, and her having to handle the blackmail of her actual father. It does eventually work out, even for the blackmailer (Hartley Powers).

Given the relative poverty in budgets of British musicals as opposed to Americans ones, this film is on par with the best American musicals of the period. As for Matthews, she went on to other musical film triumphs, including "FIRST A MAN", a musical about a woman, pretending to be a female impersonator. It was based on a German film, and both were the basis for the Julie Andrews - Robert Preston - James Garner triumph VICTOR/VICTORIA.

"Yesterday," to avoid scandal involving her illegitimate baby girl, music hall performer Jessie Matthews (as Harriet Green) retires from the stage. "To-Day" her adult daughter, Ms. Matthews (as Harriet Hawkes), is back in London, auditioning as a chorus girl. She meets young show business hopeful Barry Mackay (as Tommy Thompson), who promotes Ms. Matthews as the return of her eternally youthful mother. The British public is delighted with the comeback, but 60-year-old "mother" Matthews falls in love with "son" Mackay and their ruse is threatened by paramours from Mathews' past. Helping out are real-life husband Sonnie Hale (as Leslie Benn), veteran British favorite Betty Balfour (as Maudie), and director Victor Saville.

****** Evergreen (4/34) Victor Saville ~ Jessie Matthews, Barry Mackay, Sonnie Hale, Betty Balfour