When You're in Love

I really enjoyed this movie because I just sat back and listened. Dissection is no fun in film. This is a breezy romp rather than ART! I laughed and had a good time. I enjoyed Cary Grants early performance and adored Grace Moore's singing. Ailene McMahon was a regular Eve Arden pre the spunky Eve herself. The odd part is that Grace plays an Australian opera singer with her American accent while Cary Grant plays an American with his English accent. Miss Moore needs to find a way into the country since she doesn't have permission to enter the states. The border guards must have been much tougher in the 1930's! If you can get your hands on this film just sit back, relax and enjoy.

The sole directorial effort from Robert Riskin (the talented screenwriter behind many of Frank Carpa's best films), WHEN YOU'RE IN LOVE is one of many films that attempted to re-create the success of 1934's surprise hit ONE NIGHT OF LOVE. This film boasts the advantage of featuring opera singer Grace Moore, the star of the previous film, in the lead role, yet it never really seems to amount to much and was not well-received by audiences upon it's original release. The film's basic premise (famous Australian opera singer "hires" an American man to pose as her husband in order to enter the country) is a workable enough set-up, but the picture fails to generate much momentum or interest. Riskin does a respectable job for a first time director, but displays a poor sense of pace and allows the picture to become plodding.

Moore is acceptable as the film's Diva (she never really commands the screen, but she has a odd sort of like-ability) and Cary Grant is in fine form as her "rented" mate, but they are playing stock characters who only seem to behave in the manner that is necessitated by the script. Their relationship suffers numerous ups and downs throughout the course of the film, but I never really cared whether they ended up together and that is a serious determent for this type of picture. The film is also marred by far too many piecing musical numbers that seem to exist only to pad out the film's runtime and serve as a defacto showcase for Moore's shrill voice (even "Minnie the Moocher," which is often referred to as the film's highpoint, is virtually unlistenable). The film's true saving grace is Aline MacMahon in a fresh and intelligent performance as Moore's assistant - MacMahon's good-natured portrayal is a minor comic gem surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.

Robert Riskin, who wrote the script for this movie, also wrote the scripts for Platinum Blonde (1931), It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Meet John Doe (1941), and many other of the great movie classics of the 1930s. If I start by listing those masterpieces, it is to wonder how he could have written something as poor as this script. Because it is the script, and Riskin's sole turn at being a movie director, that sink this movie. The first part is very poor, the middle not as bad, but then the end, with the god-awful music festival done in neo-Grecian art deco, destroys any chance of actually respecting this movie. HOW could anyone have thought that the last number, a piece that talks about a "simple song" but is staged with a cast of hundreds in elaborate 18th century ball gowns and what not, would not look ridiculous? It's a shame that the script and direction are so often so poor, because there are good things in this movie.

Moore's singing of Sibonay early in the movie is magical. It's a great number, brought off wonderfully by Moore at her very best. The staging isn't great, but it doesn't sink what is really a great five minutes.

There is also a very effective 5 minutes dramatically when Cary Grant and Moore sit before a fire in his cabin. The scene comes off as very natural, and very convincing - one of the few such natural moments in the movie, unfortunately.

Several of the other musical numbers, done very simply, are very moving. The song Moore sings to the children about the wooden doll, her song out in nature (which then gets travestied as the finale at the music festival), her singing of a folk-song while lying on her back in the cabin. And while she was no Cab Calloway, she does a nice job with Minnie the Moocher.

But Riskin's direction kills a good performance of Shubert's Serenade, done, for no apparent reason, in neo-Grecian art-deco. And Moore's performance of Vissi d'arte from Tosca under the opening credits is never explained and leads nowhere.

The dramatic crux of the movie happens only because Moore's character fails to explain to Cary Grant's why she has to sing at the music festival. It makes no sense that she would not have explained this.

So, in summary: there are some golden nuggets in this movie, mostly the musical numbers - but not all of them. Most of the rest of it is poor.

Very definitely inferior to Moore's other movie from 1937, I'll Take Romance, which suggests that Moore could have made some good movies if she had had better directors and material.

Another light hearted romp from the 30's. Who doesn't like Cary Grant? This is an early glimpse into the comedic side of the Cary Grant we loved in so many films he made afterward. Miss Moore lights up the screen with her singing. Grace Moore was an opera star from the Met that found her way into film. She was nominated for Best Actress for her 1934 film "One Night of Love". Here an Australian opera singer needs to get to America but cannot get over the border and agrees to a plan. This movie has quite a bit of charm. I love the scenes of Mexico. One song in particular is a bit overdone but, all in all this is a nice romantic film. It may not be Shakespeare but it's a lot of fun.

When You're In Love will forever be known as the film where Grace Moore shed her opera image and did a low down version of Minnie the Moocher. For that and for the fact that she got Cary Grant as a leading man who in the end would way eclipse her in movie star power. Grace was on the decline in Hollywood and Grant was rising fast.

The film was produced, written, and directed by Robert Riskin, his only directorial credit. Riskin is primarily known as the screenwriter collaborator of Frank Capra in some of his most memorable films. He also had been romantically involved earlier in the decade with another soprano star Jeanette MacDonald.

In fact the Minnie the Moocher sequence was inspired I'm sure by Jeanette's turn at jazz in Rose Marie the year before where she sang Some of These Days.

Though it didn't appear so When You're In Love was also a milestone film for Cary Grant even though he was distinctly second billed to Miss Grace Moore. This was his first film after leaving his nurturing studio of Paramount. For the next fifteen year or so, Grant alternated primarily with RKO and Columbia as employers of his free lance services.

The plot borders on the silly. Grace Moore is an Australian opera star who overstayed her work visa in America and was deported to Mexico where she's languishing waiting for an immigration quota number. Her shrewd manager Aline McMahon hits on the idea of marrying an American to get back in the country immediately.

Well if you're going to get married you can't do better than Cary Grant for any purpose. He's a penniless artist and also would like to leave Mexico, but he does have some rather interesting ideas on the relationship himself.

Moore's character is no doubt borrowed from real life Australian opera singer Marjorie Lawrence whose life story would be told in the MGM film Interrupted Melody. Lawrence did marry an American, but not for her immigration status.

The subject matter of the film would be done in a far more serious vein by Paramount in 1941 in Hold Back The Dawn with Charles Boyer and Olivia DeHavilland. Those folks's immigration problems were far more real than what we see here.

Grace Moore has her usual mix of opera and concert material to sing in When You're In Love. In addition Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields also contribute two numbers as well.

But it's Minnie the Moocher, that red hot Hoochy Coocher for which this film will always be known. What must Cab Calloway have thought?