I Dream Too Much

"I Dream Too Much," nicknamed "I Scream Too Much," is a 1935 film starring opera singer Lily Pons and Henry Fonda, who at this point in his life resembled Jane Fonda in a man's haircut. He was really at the height of his most adorable-ness. Fonda plays a composer named Johnny Street who marries a young woman, Annette, only to discover that she has an operatic voice. In attempting to push his opera, she sings some of it for the head of the opera company in Paris. He makes her a huge star and Johnny is stuck on the sidelines. When he finds out that she is paying for a production of his opera, he leaves her.

This is a slight story no doubt prompted by the success of Jeanette MacDonald and Grace Moore that relies on the voice and personality of Lily Pons and the cuteness of Fonda. Eric Blore plays a neighbor who has a trained seal; he's there for comic relief, and he was always funny.

Pons was a huge opera star who actually sang for the last time in 1972, when she was 74 years of age! She was tiny at a time when opera stars ran very big, she was very glamorous, and her timing was impeccable - she arrived in America during the Depression and saved the Metropolitan Opera from bankruptcy. Her signature aria was the Bell Song from Lakme, an opera done infrequently today if at all. In it, she wore a bare midriff costume and showed off her F above high C and her coloratura technique. She was an ideal Rosina, Gilda, Lucia, Linda di Chamonix, etc. Women singers in those days were trained a little differently than they are today, with back placement of the high notes. Pons' middle voice and extension above high C were lovely, but the notes from F to high C had a shrillness to them, at least in recording. Her speaking voice records shrilly as well.

This is actually a sweet film that the actors make enjoyable. I could have done without the long, dragging number at the end, but it's a chance to see one of opera's legends and a very young Fonda.

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.

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?

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.