In Person

Movie star Carol Corliss (Ginger Rogers) has developed a fear of large crowds. She starts putting on her buck teeth plain Jane disguise to hide her identity. Emory Muir (George Brent) saves her from a crowd, but only knows her from her false identity.

Ginger Rogers shows that she can do more than dance backwards in heels with Fred Astaire. This starts with a great premise, but gets a bit convoluted in the cabin. The whole therapy thing is a mess. It seems to be an excuse to be stupid. Anyways, the movie needs to end with two specific scenes. It does neither. Instead, she solves her condition and the movie loses that part of the tension. The bickering just feels manufactured and then there are the hillbillies.

This simple rom-com has to do with a popular actress, Carol Corliss (Ginger Rogers), who has been traumatized by overworking and an unruly mob, and so goes out in public in disguise. Her psychiatrist is trying to overcome her agoraphobia by gradually exposing her to the outside world. When she meets Emory Muir (George Brent) by happenstance, and overhears that he is taking a vacation at a remote cabin, she asks him to take her along. He agrees, not knowing of her stardom.

When they get to the cabin, he treats her indifferently, even when he discovers her true identity. Though she resists at first, she falls into a domesticity, obviously concerned about his feelings toward her. The romance hinges on believing that there is a spark between them, but there is little heat on the screen. Later, when they return to "civilization", they are forced to confront their feelings.

Ginger sings three songs and dances within the context of her stardom, but the core of the film is her portrayal of the non-star, when she uses the pseudonym Clara Colfax. There is a wackiness to the storyline that suggests screwball, but it never really rises to that level.

For my money, the best part of the film is her final song and dance, which is part of a film within the film. And it's not even a great song. There is the glamour that she exudes with virtually every film with Astaire.

As for George Brent, his character deprives him of any real chance to be adorable or dashing. He does a fine job, but one wonders how much difference it would make if the role were in the hands of someone like Astaire or even Jack Carson.

Beautiful, multitalented Ginger Rogers is -guess what - a beautiful and multitalented movie star in In Person from 1935, also starring George Brent.

After a nervous collapse, a popular film star, Carol Corliss, goes into hiding, donning an ugly duckling disguise. Her psychiatrist thinks time in a mountain cabin will do her good, and asks a outdoorsman (Brent) to accompany her.

At first he doesn't know who she is, but he discovers her identity soon enough.

Then her frequent costar (Alan Mowbray) shows up, declaring his love and wanting her to return to Hollywood.

Pleasant enough, but Ginger's singing and dancing really are the highlights. She and Brent have good chemistry.

I've always wanted to see this movie, because it contains two extremely obscure and fabulous songs, "Don't Mention Love To Me" and "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind", written for this film by Oscar Lavant and Dorothy Fields. There's a 1935 Brunswick 78 by Kay Thompson of these two rare tunes, and they're just about as good as any songs of the depression era.

I finally got a VHS of this rather rare movie, and I was floored by how wonderfully mediocre it is. It moves at a fast pace and the acting is just fine. The screenplay is more than a bit silly.

If I have a vote, I would get Warner Bros to include this in a Ginger Rogers DVD collection.

It's absolutely a worthwhile film to watch and own.

If you'd like a decent time passer with a few good moments, then IN PERSON is a pretty good bet. It's highly reminiscent of a later Astaire-Rogers film, CAREFREE, though not nearly as charming. Like CAREFREE, the main theme is psychiatry, though with IN PERSON, Ginger isn't faking a mental illness to get a man, in the story she really did have a nervous breakdown. The film begins after she's apparently cured and how she meets George Brent is one of the strangest and most contrived meetings in film history, as she looks initially like the Elephant Man walking down the street and underneath the hood, she's wearing a ridiculous disguise--all as a part of her treatment(?) for agoraphobia! Apparently, she is playing a famous actress (a big stretch) who is suddenly afraid of people--hence the goofy disguises.

The rest of the film is essentially a "boy meets girl and hates girl but by the end they are in love" sort of film--very, very predictable but also kind of cute in a rather absurd way. Frankly, George Brent and Ginger Rogers were better than this material, but since they are such pleasant personalities, it manages to work--though I agree with Arthur Hausner's review when he describes the film as "forced".