It's Love Again

The name Jessie Matthews may not meant a great deal to current film goers, even to those who like old movies, but she was England's biggest musical star of the 1930's. She was a great dancer, a fine singer, a wonderful actress and scintillating personality. (Only personal troubles and changing tastes ushered in by the war prevented her from having a longer career.) It's Love Again, at a mid-point in her film career, provided her most memorable vehicle, except perhaps for the earlier film Evergreen, in which she established her screen persona as an aspiring musical star who resorts to some sort of trickery to achieve stardom. In this film she tries to get publicity for herself by impersonating a mysterious Indian woman who is actually a concoction of her society columnist boy-friend, played, surprisingly, by an engaging Robert Young. Also in the cast is her then-husband comedian Sonny Hale as well as his father Robert, and well-known character actress Athene Seyler. It's a peppy and thoroughly entertaining film. There is comedy, romance, good songs and musical numbers --- and Jessie wears some exotic and quite sexy costumes. All in all, though not for everyone's taste, it is a delight and quite different from --- and in many ways better than --- the musical films Hollywood had to offer at the time. And the talented Miss Matthews, with her bright eyes, toothy smile, enthusiasm, eccentricity, and Mayfair accent, is worth a look for those not familiar with her.

It's a lovely, cheerful and musical comedy that's actually quite funny.

Following the phenomenal success of EVERGREEN, Gaumont-British put Jessie Matthews into a whole series of similar films all with a familiar cosy, warm feeling of predictability. They're all essentially rags to to riches tales where a struggling dancer finally makes it big.

Jessie Matthews as always utterly adorable and in this film her singing is also a lot more pleasant since she's abandoned her earlier pseudo-operatic style. She immediately engages your emotions, straight away you are on her side, rooting for her..... well almost straight away. Even back in the thirties, it took audiences a while to get used to Jessie Matthews' weird affected accent. That incongruous upper class accent just didn't go with a struggling working class girl trying to get into show business. Although in reality, Jessie Matthews had indeed been a struggling working class girl wanting to get into show businesses and she did that partly by attending elocution lessons to wipe out all traces of her cockney accent! That cut-glass way of speaking didn't make her popular everywhere especially in the working class north where for some insane reason they preferred Gracie Fields films. There's no accounting for taste!

Albeit predictable, this has all the classy hallmarks of Gaumont-British, snappy direction from Victor Saville, a script that's still very funny even today and of course an utterly charming star. Besides exhibiting buckets of talent she does of course look absolutely stunning - some of the outfits she wears would probably not have been allowed over in America where The Hays Code was now in force to ensure decency and improve the morals of that nation. One of her dresses looks very similar to THAT dress Marilyn Monroe wore in SOME LIKE IT HOT and as for the 'spray-on' glittery body suit at the end - well that would certainly make those dogs in that cinema wag their tails!

Peter (Robert Young) and Freddie (Sonnie Hale) invent a celebrity, Mrs Smythe-Smythe, in order to fool the public and sell newspapers. Meanwhile, Elaine Bradford (Jessie Matthews) is looking for a chance to become a celebrity and seems to be getting nowhere with her audition for major theatre producer Raymond (Ernest Milton). So, she pretends to be Mrs Smythe-Smythe in order to get attention. Things go well at first but a rival reporter discovers the truth....

There are many humorous sections in this film, eg, the scene where Peter and Freddie decide on their celebrity, Raymond's exasperation with the theatre (I hate the theatre....I hate the people...). The cast are all good and Sonnie Hale is funny in most of his scenes. The film is Britsh and I was surprised at the quality of both the production and the comedy. It doesn't contain that stupid British humour of the time. It is actually quite funny!

But best of all, the film has Jessie Matthews singing and dancing. The songs are all fine but her dancing is great. She was easily up there with the best that Hollywood could provide at the time. Maybe she was THE best of her time. All the dances are good, my favourite being the sequence where she is trapped into giving a performance of a Hindu temple dance. She has no idea what she is supposed to do and starts somewhat hesitantly but then turns it into the most enjoyable solo tap dance sequence in any film that I can remember seeing. A joy to watch. I was pleasantly surprised by this film.

Maybe I am just a tough guy when it comes to reviewing and rating films, but I noticed that a lot of reviewers gave this film a score of 10. 10 is a score I'd associate with films like "Gone With the Wind", "The Godfather" and "Ben Hur"....not with a light and modestly enjoyable British musical. To give it a 10 seems a bit extreme to me.

Peter Carlton (Robert Young) is a gossip columnist with a problem...nothing to write about. So, he invents a celebrity, 'Mrs. Smythe-Smythe', a traveling adventurer who has done practically everything. When Elaine (Jessie Matthews) learns about this, she decides to pose as the adventurer and eventually romance ensues....following lots of song and dance numbers.

This is a very pleasant film made a bit better due to Matthews' cute persona. It's nothing you should rush out to see, but it is pleasant and proves that the British, too, could make charming musicals.

Jessie Matthews can't get a dancing foot in the door of the West End, so she borrows the character of "Mrs. Smythe-Smythe", a made-up celebrity who's the property of gossip columnist Robert Young. Good thing he's in love with her.

This is one of those movies in which the plot is just a framework to hang musical numbers and jokes on. Jack will have his Jill, and so forth. The jokes are minimal, the dancing ranges from good to excellent, and Young, unlike other co-stars of Miss Matthews, does not seem to be afraid of her. Miss Matthews wears her unlikely costumes with an air of amused disbelief. The sets seem to have been designed by Alfred Junge by looking at MGM fantasia sets and saying "Let's make that bigger. And more spangles."

As a result I found myself distracted by the theater design in the final scenes. I found myself wondering about the people who paid for seats hard up against that runway, would have to turn around, look up, and still see nothing.

Miss Matthews had real talent, but the British film industry seemed to have no idea what to do with her, and loaded her down with ever more unlikely plots, leading men, set designers, costumes, and choreographers, thinking that was how to top the last one. This one works, although the engine sputters occasionally.