Her First Romance

A musical comedy starring Wilbur Evans and Edith Fellows, this work is based upon a Gene Stratton-Porter novel that is the fundament for Adele Comandini's typically sentimental and breezy screenplay, with the diminutive Fellows successfully advancing beyond her child star phase, attracting suitors as so many fireflies in a variation of the ugly duckling motif. Light opera standout Evans, a bass-baritone, and Fellows, a pleasing soprano, perform several works from classical and traditional repertoires, including several duets, and are as well a pleasing romantic pair, with the narrative concerning several intertwined relationships of the heart, with appropriate hindrances, all settled with good taste. The lovely Fellows, only 17 when this was filmed, fetchingly portrays a girl of the same age fulfilling duties as Cupid while gradually hoeing her own beaux, and there is competent support from a cast that includes Alan Ladd, Jacqueline Wells, and Judith Linden, with a particularly fine performance by the seldom-seen stage trained Marian Kerby as an Irish housekeeper/cook.

This film features Edith Fellows...a diminutive singing star from the 1930s who appeared in several Gene Autry westerns. However, as she got older, she had difficulty finding roles in films because she was quite small, a couple inches under five feet tall. In fact, because of her size the roles she did get were generally juvenile ones. Here in "Her First Romance" she gets a rare chance to play someone who isn't a child...nor quite a grown woman, as she was 17 and budding into a lovely young lady. Despite this, the film finds her playing an ugly duckling sort of role...something which might have been distressing for Fellows to have to perform. Imagine a teen being told to play such a part!

When the movie begins, it's made very clear that Linda (Fellows) is plain and they dress her in ordinary clothes and glasses. It's hard to hide that she's really rather pretty....though all the young men in the film seem to think she's unattractive. Her half-sister, Eileen, who is also her guardian, however, is quite different. She's pretty, popular and a rather ugly person inside who loves telling Linda how unattractive she is...and discouraging her when she tries to improve herself.

Out of the blue, a young man asks Linda out to a dance. She's shocked, as she isn't at all popular. What she doesn't know is that he's only doing this because he was put up to it because he's a pledge to some dopey fraternity. She learns the truth just before the dance and although she is stunning, she vows not to go and tells her date to get lost. However, out of the blue, a famous singer (Wilbur Evans) who met Linda only the day before arrives and this handsome and talented man takes her to the dance. And, considering they both love to sing, they seem like a well-matched couple despite the age difference. Suddenly, she's a sensation with her peers! But now, she only wants this singer...which is a bit creepy due to him being twice her age. What's next for Linda?

Apart from a nice performance by Fellows, the other reason to see this film is to see Alan Ladd in one of his pre-stardom roles. He's only a supporting player, but for 1940 it was a plum role for him. On the negative side, the film is silly because when Linda is in before mode, she is ridiculously unpopular...and when she pretties herself up, she's like a hunk of meat thrown into a den of wolves she's so wanted by all the young men! Subtle it ain't! It's also a bit cringe-worthy when Linda becomes infatuated with the singer and she throws herself at him...a man twice her age. This aspect really severely impacted on the film...particularly the ending, which left me a bit confused and dissatisfied. Worth watching but nothing more overall.

By the way, although I enjoyed this film, I thought it was pretty hilarious how at the dance Linda and her date sang a VERY complicated duet...and it was perfect despite neither practicing it together. Only in films!

In this Monogram feature Edith Fellows gets to play a part similar to what Deana Durbin was doing over at Universal. Fellows is the younger sister who in this case with a good scholastic record. She's also got a good soprano voice and that does get people interested.

Fellows has all kinds of romantic notions and like Durbin she's a little miss fix it in terms of her relations Julie Bishop and Judith Linden. She's trying to fix them up with lawyer Alan Ladd and baritone Wilbur Evans.

This is one of Evans's only screen roles, but he did a number of Broadway shows in the 40s. Fellows and Evans make some beautiful music together.

Deana Durbin fans should check this out.

Co-ed Edith Fellows has two older sisters in Julie Bishop (still credited as Jacqueline Wellls) and Judith Linden. There are various goings-on involving Miss Fellows, like all pretty movie starlets, thinking she is plain, and issues with the school fraternity. That all washes out as the principal plot is revealed: singer Wilbur Evans shows up, and fascinates the ladies. At first Miss Fellows is concerned that her sister who is engaged to Alan Ladd is falling for the fellow, and then realizes that she is.

There's a lot of talent here that hadn't gotten the chance to reveal itself earlier. Ladd, of course, and Evans has quite a voice that sustained him for decades on the legitimate stage. However, his speaking voice sounds like he's playing to the theater.

That aside, the other talent still on the rise is director Edward Dmytryk. He had begun directing regularly the previous year, but not anything distinguished. This movie was from Monogram, and while it has some nice bits in it, and the music breaks are good, it's mostly an attempt to move Miss Fellows from child actor to ingenue without spending too much money. Miss Fellowes does all right, as does everyone else, but I mostly credit Dmytryk for keeping everything moving along at a good clip.

The one person who makes the movie watchable is the delightful (on screen), and intensely tragic (in real life) Edith Fellows. After watching the movie, I looked for other movies of her, and then got the surprise. She didn't get many roles, probably none in a la creme movies, and that was - to top it all, due to her short stature! She was a delightful soprano, sweet looking, good figure, and despite that she couldn't get even musicals! This one is of course out and out her movie, and she does full justice to her part. Probably, after experience as child actress, even at this tender age, she was 17, the age of the on-screen role, she wasn't really a green-horn.

It isn't a very unpredictable movie, the ugly duckling here has quite a few fairy godmothers,from Katy, to her best friend Susie, to cousin Marian, who were ready to do anything to protect her, even playing cupid against Linda (Edith)'s own cupid identity. There was only one cruel step-sister here, Eileen, who was step-sister cum step mother (legal guardian).Though it might not look as fair fight, one against many, but shrewd and manipulative Eileen was able to partially make it even. The musical numbers were excellently rendered by Edith and Wilbur. If my memory serves me right, this is the first soprano version of "ochi chernye" I have heard, and Edith didn't disappoint.