It's Love Again

It's Love Again
Film poster
Directed byVictor Saville
Written byoriginal screenplay:
Marion Dix
Lesser Samuels
scenario:
Marion Dix
additional dialogue:
Austin Melford
Produced byJohn Findlay
StarringJessie Matthews
Robert Young
CinematographyGlen MacWilliams
Edited byAl Barnes
Music bymusical score:
Louis Levy
Bretton Byrd
music & lyrics:
Sam Coslow
Harry Woods
Production
company
Distributed byGaumont British Distributors
Release dates
  • 6 May 1936 (1936-05-06) (London, UK)
  • 30 May 1936 (1936-05-30) (U.S.)
Running time
83 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish

It's Love Again is a 1936 British musical film directed by Victor Saville and starring Jessie Matthews, Robert Young and Sonnie Hale.[1] In the film, a chorus girl masquerades as a big game hunter to try to boost her showbiz career.[2]

The film was made at the Lime Grove Studios,[3] with art direction by Alfred Junge.[4]

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

Critical reception

In The New York Times, Frank Nugent 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'";[5] whereas Leonard Maltin noted a "Lighter-than-air musical-comedy vehicle for Matthews following her success with Saville on Evergreen," and found the film, "Funny, charming and imaginatively done, with several pleasant songs."[6]

Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene 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".[7]

References

  1. ^ "It's Love Again (1936)". Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
  2. ^ MacNab p.79
  3. ^ Wood p.90
  4. ^ "Alfred Junge". Archived from the original on 21 March 2016.
  5. ^ "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 5 May 2022.
  6. ^ "It's Love Again (1936) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies.
  7. ^ Greene, Graham (18 September 1936). "The Great Ziegfeld/It's Love Again/Marchand d'Amour/East Meets West". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. pp. 101-102. ISBN 0192812866.)

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.


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