I Dream Too Much

The Mid Thirties was a great time for opera when after Grace Moore had scored so well in One Night Of Love all the studios immediately rushed out to sign their own sopranos. MGM already had Jeanette MacDonald, but Columbia had Moore, Paramount signed Gladys Swarthout and RKO signed Lily Pons for this film, I Dream Too Much.

In between all the high Cs that Pons hit, I Dream Too Much is the story of a boy and girl for whom success does not come at the same time. Lily Pons while trying to escape her strict music teacher for a night of fun and frolic, lands on Henry Fonda as she's climbing out her window. Wouldn't you know it Fonda turns out to be a budding composer and after a night on the town, they wind up married.

But while she gains acclaim for her singing, Fonda just can't get any notice for his music. The same plot was used in the MGM Jeanette MacDonald-Lew Ayres film Broadway Serenade so if you've seen that you know how this one goes. That one however was more dramatic and this was played more for comedy.

What I Dream Too Much does have going for it are four Jerome Kern- Dorothy Fields songs to go with the operatic arias that Ms. Pons does. The best known of these is The Jockey On The Carousel which Lily sings while on a carousel to little Scotty Beckett.

Fonda in a comic role has little to do, but display a kind of oafish charm. The film is clearly a vehicle for Lily Pons and he knows it.

As for the film, it still retains a lot of charm. I wish opera and operetta were still done on the big screen, but that day as come and gone. And we sure don't have composers like Jerome Kern writing for the screen either.

I found this movie on TCM. Lily Pons' singing is awesome, it makes the movie. I was born too late to hear her sing in person, but thanks to movies like this I can hear her.

The very concept of HENRY FONDA (the "aw shucks" guy from the sticks) as the husband of an opera singer (LILY PONS) is a weak idea that must have posed quite a problem for the scriptwriters. You have to wonder how audiences accepted this idea way back then because Fonda's youthful image was strictly the unsophisticated farm boy type.

But that's not the only improbable thing about I DREAM TOO MUCH. The slight story is silly (as most musicals of the '30s were), and enjoyment of the film will depend entirely on whether or not you like to hear Miss Pons give out with her flute-like operatic voice on several well chosen arias. She certainly had an amazing vocal range and her rendition of "The Bell Song" from L'Akme is a highlight of this otherwise rather ordinary film.

ERIC BLORE is there for a few standard comic routines and you can even catch a glimpse of LUCILLE BALL as a tourist in one of her early roles at RKO. But there's nothing much one can say about the film itself except that it gave audiences a chance to hear why Pons was such a favorite at the Met for a period amounting to something like thirty years. Otherwise, it's strictly routine stuff as romantic comedy, coming to life only when Pons sings.

Struggling American composer Johnny Street (Henry Fonda) is in France where he stumbles across a naive, sheltered young woman, Annette Monard (Pons). After a drunken night out, they wake up married, and decide to give it a go. Johnny is stunned to discover that Annette is a gifted operatic singer, in training since childhood, and after impresario Paul Darcy (Osgood Perkins) hears her, she becomes a leading star of the European musical stage, much to the annoyance of Johnny, who can't sell a song much less his opera. Also featuring Eric Blore (with a performing seal), Lucille Ball, Lucien Littlefield, Mischa Auer, Paul Porcasi, Gino Corrado, Billy Gilbert, Ferdinand Gottschalk, and Scotty Beckett.

Pons, a gifted singer, has trouble with her dialogue and her thick French accent makes understanding her a bit difficult at times. She seems like she's enjoying herself, but at age 37 at the time of filming she seems a bit old for her role. The romance is lacking in chemistry, and the comedy is weak, especially considering the talents of Blore and Ball. That leaves the songs: there's some classical-style opera, some operetta bits, and some pop tunes, but none made any impression. The "show-stopper" musical number at the end, featuring a fashion show, and one of the silliest choreographed group dance bits I've ever seen, brings some unintentional entertainment. This movie managed to nab an Oscar nomination, for Best Sound Recording.

Who's worse, Cyd Charisse when she's not dancing or Lily Pons when she's not singing? (And no, Doris Day, who could actually be a good actress on far spaced occasions, is not even in the running). It's a close call but my money's on Pons with that insufferable, nails on a French menu chalkboard Pepita Le Peu accent and simpering smile. Fonda really paid his acting dues having to team with this babe and that stupid seal, huh?