''It's Love Again'' is a 1936 British

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

directed by

Victor Saville Victor Saville (25 September 1895 – 8 May 1979) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962. Biography Saville produced his first f ...

and starring Jessie Matthews, Robert Young and

Sonnie Hale John Robert Hale-Monro (1 May 1902 – 9 June 1959), known as Sonnie Hale, was an English actor, screenwriter, and director. Early life John Robert Hale-Monro was born in Kensington, London, the son of Belle Reynolds and actor Robert Hal ...

. In the film, a

chorus girl A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed. Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms s ...

masquerades as a big game hunter to try to boost her showbiz career. The film was made at the Lime Grove Studios, with

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

Alfred Junge Alfred Junge (29 January 1886, Görlitz, Silesia (now Saxony), Germany – 16 July 1964, London) was a German-born production designer who spent a large part of his career working in the British film industry. Junge had wanted to be an artis ...

Plot

Under pressure to come up with a story, gossip columnist Peter Carlton (Robert Young) invents the imaginary socialite and big game hunter "Mrs. Smythe-Smythe." This glamorous lady spends her time hunting tigers, jumping out of airplanes and driving men wild with her beauty. Carlton is somewhat taken aback when the real lady turns up in person, impersonated by aspiring actress Elaine Bradford (Jessie Matthews), in search of her big break.

Cast

* Jessie Matthews as Elaine Bradford/Mrs. Smythe-Smythe * Robert Young as Peter Carlton *

as Freddie Rathbone * Ernest Milton as Raymond *

Robb Wilton Robert Wilton Smith (28 August 1881 – 1 May 1957), better known as Robb Wilton, was an English comedian and actor. He was best known for his filmed monologues during the 1930s and 1940s, in which he played incompetent authority figures. His tr ...

as Boys - Butler *

Sara Allgood Sarah Ellen Allgood (30 October 1880 – 13 September 1950), known as Sara Allgood, was an Irish-American actress. She first studied drama with the Irish nationalist Daughters of Ireland and was at the opening of the Irish National Theatre Soc ...

as Mrs. Hopkins * Anthony Holles as Headwaiter * Cyril Wells as Gigolo * Warren Jenkins as Woolf * David Horne as Durland *

Athene Seyler Athene Seyler, CBE (31 May 188912 September 1990) was an English actress. Early life She was born in Hackney, London; her German-born grandparents moved to the United Kingdom, where her grandfather Philip Seyler was a merchant in London. Ath ...

as Mrs. Durland *

Glennis Lorimer Glennis Lorimer (''Glennis Dorothy Browne''; 27 April 1913 – 17 November 1968) was a British actress, who appeared in a number of films during the 1930s. She also appeared in the Gainsborough Pictures logo before the opening credits of films b ...

as Montague's typist * Robert Hale as Colonel Edgerton *

Cyril Raymond Cyril William North Raymond MBE (13 February 1899 – 20 March 1973) was a British character actor. He maintained a stage and screen career from his teens until his retirement, caused by ill health, in the 1960s. His many stage, film and tele ...

as Montague *

Graham Moffatt Graham Victor Harold Moffatt (6 December 1919 – 2 July 1965) was an English comedic character actor. He is best known for a number of films where he appeared with Will Hay and Moore Marriott as 'Albert': a plump cheekily insolent street-sa ...

as Callboy *

Olive Sloane Olive Sloane (16 December 1896 – 28 June 1963) was an English actress whose film career spanned over 40 years from the silent era through to her death. Sloane's career trajectory was unusual in that for most of her professional life she was e ...

as Francine Grenoble (uncredited)

Critical reception

In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Frank Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...

wrote, "Gaumont-British has yet to do full justice to Miss Jessie Matthews, first lady of England's musical comedy screen. Her latest picture, "It's Love Again," which opened yesterday at the Roxy, imposes the entire burden of a cumbersome and unevenly paced comedy upon her shoulders and, although she rises to the task with her accustomed loveliness, gayety and talent, she is unable to convert the picture into anything more than what the gentlemen of the drama department would call 'a personal triumph'"; whereas

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

noted a "Lighter-than-air musical-comedy vehicle for Matthews following her success with

Saville SAVILLE is a classified NSA Type 1 encryption algorithm, developed in the late 1960s, jointly by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the UK and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US. It is used broadly, often for voice e ...

on ''

Evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

''," and found the film, "Funny, charming and imaginatively done, with several pleasant songs." Writing for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' in 1936,

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

gave the film a good review, describing the direction as "with speed, efficiency, and a real sense of the absurd". Greene praised the acting of Matthews and claimed that the double-entendre-filled scene of the "Oriental party" with the colonel and gossip-writer to be "memorable indeed". (reprinted in: )

References

Bibliography

* Low, Rachael. ''Filmmaking in 1930s Britain''. George Allen & Unwin, 1985. * MacNab, Geoffrey. ''Searching for stars: stardom and screen acting in British cinema''. Casell, 2000. * Wood, Linda. ''British Films, 1927-1939''. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links

* 1936 films British musical films 1936 musical films British black-and-white films Films directed by Victor Saville Films shot at Lime Grove Studios Films with screenplays by Lesser Samuels 1930s English-language films 1930s British films {{UK-musical-film-stub