Caprices de femme

Having watched Cary Grant in 'North by Northwest', I wanted to learn more about his track record leading up to 'North by Northwest' by watching this film. Don't waste your time on this poorly made film. No wonder it hasn't stood the test of time and has been hard to find for decades. It fails to provide any entertainment value nor are there any interesting characters that we can hook our viewing on. It was produced by Paramount Pictures, but it is not a movie. It's not even a stage play. I don't know what it is or why it got made, and I can understand why this is one of Cary Grant's lesser known films because it is not a movie. However, I understand that to build a career you are going to have some projects that are non-events.

Heavily inspired by the success that opera singer Gracie Moore had found with picture ONE NIGHT OF LOVE, the considerably less successful ENTER MADAME follows the turbulent relationship between an Opera prima donna (Elissa Landi) and a wealthy fan (Cary Grant) as her career frequently interferes with the quality of their off-again/on-again marriage. The Italian-born Landi (whose singing voice is agreeably dubbed by Nina Koshetz) captures the appropriate poise and aura of a true diva, and Grant lends her able support, but the two have no real chemistry in their scenes together, which causes much of the film to fizzle. Although the simple story is effectively plotted, nicely placed, and features winning supporting performances by Lynne Overman, Frank Albertson, and Adrian Rosley, the picture is simply never able to fully recover from the lack of interest in the relationship between to film's two central characters. It becomes difficult to care much about the characters played by Lundi and Grant after their admittedly entertaining first meeting, and this prevents the otherwise well-made film from rising above mediocrity.

Cary Grant shows up at the opera whenever Elissa Landi is singing (voice provided by Nina Koshetz), so they get married. Yet Miss Landi is always performing, and Grant tires of only seeing his wife on stage, so he sues for divorce so he can wed Sharon Lynn.

It's certainly well performed under the direction of Elliot Nugent, but between the diva persona of Miss Landi's diva, and Grant being basically her support, my net reaction is underwhelming. There are no other stars; the hope, I suppose, was that these two could carry the picture. Paul Porcasi is amusing as her chef, Lynn Overman her manager, but it's mostly about people wanting egg in their beer. See if you can spot Ann Sheridan in a tiny role while she was still Clara Lou Sheridan.

Enter Madame! (1935)

** (out of 4)

Gerald Fitzgerald (Cary Grant) is a rabid opera fan who loves watching the talented and beautiful Lisa Della Robbia (Elissa Landi). By accident the two end up meeting and falling in love. They're quickly married and Gerald thinks he's got the greatest job in the world as a husband to an opera star. Pretty soon he starts to realize being second place to her career isn't much fun.

ENTER MADAME! is another early Cary Grant picture where the actor was pretty much been given lesser quality scripts and the end results pretty much show that. With that said, there's no question that this here was slightly better than KISS AND MAKE-UP as well as LADIES SHOULD LISTEN. Still, after three duds in a row, I guess we're lucky that Grant managed to keep getting pictures. Even though he's good in them, there's no question that none of them were all that impressive.

This one here is a decent romantic comedy where a love triangle is the subject. After Grant and Landi are married, he soon starts to realize that he might have been happier with his friend Flora (Sharon Lynn), which leads to a divorce and a new marriage. Soon more complications come into play and all three are battling it out. The scenario is interesting enough, if not that original, but very little is actually done with it and in the end there just aren't enough laughs to make it worth sitting through.

The saving grace to the picture are obviously the performances. Grant is in fine form as he plays the dashing and charming man. This is the type of character he could play with ease and he turns in a good performance. Landi pretty much plays a snob throughout the movie but she does a very good job with it and Lynn is also good as the opposite type of character. Ann Sheridan has a very small supporting role.

"Enter Madame!" begins with Gerald (Cary Grant) going to see an opera. He's smitten with the Prima Donna, Lisa Della Robbia (Elissa Landi)....and gets a set right up next to the stage. Out of the blue, an accident occurs and the lady's dress catches fire...and Gerald jumps on stage to save her. However, a stage hand released the curtain...and it knocks out Gerald after he's put out the fire. When he awakens, Lisa takes the injure man home to care for him. Very soon after, they are married. Unfortunately, Lisa's career and life choices make having a married life nearly impossible. And, once she loses him, she concocts a plan to try to trick Gerald into coming back to her.

Casting Cary Grant made sense, as although this is one of his early films, he already was well on his way to becoming a matinee idol. Landi, on the other hand, is an odd choice. While she is Italian, like many great opera singers, I could find nothing in what I read about her online which would indicate she ever sang opera or was known for her singing. I can only assume her singing was actually performed by someone else. This makes me wonder why they didn't just find an opera singer for the role, as Hollywood had a short infatuation in the 1930-40s with opera stars and tried to make several of them stars (such as Lawrence TIbbett and Grace Moore*). A few made it...though most of these sang operatic music but chose to act as opposed to doing opera full-time (such as Deanna Durbin, Nelson Eddy and Kathryn Grayson). So, it wasn't like the studio had to use an actress like Landi who wasn't actually a singer. If I am wrong about her singing, please let me know....but as I said, I could find NOTHING about her singing opera music.

So is it any good? Yes and no. Grant is very professional and exactly what you'd expect. Landi, on the other hand, is occasionally rather shrill...but I think the script and director probably instructed her to overact and scream a lot...like a stereotypical temperamental opera star. I don't know for sure...but it was not exactly subtle and should have been toned down a bit. The same can be said about a few of the supporting characters as well. Enjoyable but far from a must-see unless you are a die-hard Cary Grant fan.



*By the way, Grant DID star in a film with Ms. Moore ("When You're in Love"), a genuine opera star. Sadly, the Grace Moore films I have seen weren't particularly distinguished and her career in movies was rather brief.