Producer: Michael Balcon. A Gaumont-British picture, made at Pinewood Studios, England. Copyright 3 October 1937 by Gaumont British Picture Corp. of America. New York opening at the Roxy: 20 August 1937. U.K. release: 7 October 1937. Australian release through Gaumont-British-Dominions: 10 March 1938. 9 reels. 90 minutes. Australian release title: SPARKLES.
COMMENT: Although this attempt to satirize the American gangster movie doesn't quite come off (it contrives to be both too strained yet too realistic), there is much to admire in this Jessie Matthews vehicle. The first three-quarters of the movie (before our heroine arrives in New York and the stage is set for the disquieting and somewhat intrusive shoot-out climax) is quite delightful, if necessarily episodic.
Matthews is well cast as an assistant theater critic who wants to make good as a regular reporter. Her introductory scene as she dances along the corridor of Junge's attractively vast set, is a gem. So is the following bit in which she shows up Jenkins' impossible Czech. The sub-plot in which by a series of cleverly managed co-incidences she is mistakenly identified as a notorious international jewel thief is worthy of the richest West End farce. It also pegs in some wonderfully bizarre subsidiary characters including Olive Blakeney as an aggressive film star and Patrick Ludlow as her mousy husband. Not to mention Alastair Sim who has a high old time as an insurance investigator and Nat Pendleton as a not over-bright gangster.
The plot falls into four almost equal parts. In the first quarter, Matthews and her opposite number, Barry Mackay (playing a Scotland Yard man with rather more polish than he was to show as a crude sailor in Sailing Along) are elaborately introduced in their respective offices. The second quarter moves most of the action to the swank London hotel where Blakeney is terrorizing the staff. There is an agreeable Cinderella-like diversion to a night club in which the alleged "Sparkle" dances with the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Peter Gawthorne who made a career playing top cops). The third quarter finds us on shipboard, where the Sim and Pendleton characters are belatedly introduced and Matthews has a charming dance number, "Moon Or No Moon" (which contrasts delightfully with the pleasingly raucous "Lord and Lady Whoosis" duet from the second quarter). The final quarter, set mainly in New York speakeasies, does not have the wit, the light touch necessary. Both as scripted and played, the humor is too heavy. Nonetheless the action is rounded out to a fitting conclusion.
Technical credits are outstanding with fine sets by Junge, great camera-work by MacWilliams, and for the most part neat pacing and stylish direction from Hale.
In short, this another not-to-be-missed Jessie Matthews treat, with our heroine making the most of her catchy songs and energetic dance numbers.
COMMENT: Although this attempt to satirize the American gangster movie doesn't quite come off (it contrives to be both too strained yet too realistic), there is much to admire in this Jessie Matthews vehicle. The first three-quarters of the movie (before our heroine arrives in New York and the stage is set for the disquieting and somewhat intrusive shoot-out climax) is quite delightful, if necessarily episodic.
Matthews is well cast as an assistant theater critic who wants to make good as a regular reporter. Her introductory scene as she dances along the corridor of Junge's attractively vast set, is a gem. So is the following bit in which she shows up Jenkins' impossible Czech. The sub-plot in which by a series of cleverly managed co-incidences she is mistakenly identified as a notorious international jewel thief is worthy of the richest West End farce. It also pegs in some wonderfully bizarre subsidiary characters including Olive Blakeney as an aggressive film star and Patrick Ludlow as her mousy husband. Not to mention Alastair Sim who has a high old time as an insurance investigator and Nat Pendleton as a not over-bright gangster.
The plot falls into four almost equal parts. In the first quarter, Matthews and her opposite number, Barry Mackay (playing a Scotland Yard man with rather more polish than he was to show as a crude sailor in Sailing Along) are elaborately introduced in their respective offices. The second quarter moves most of the action to the swank London hotel where Blakeney is terrorizing the staff. There is an agreeable Cinderella-like diversion to a night club in which the alleged "Sparkle" dances with the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Peter Gawthorne who made a career playing top cops). The third quarter finds us on shipboard, where the Sim and Pendleton characters are belatedly introduced and Matthews has a charming dance number, "Moon Or No Moon" (which contrasts delightfully with the pleasingly raucous "Lord and Lady Whoosis" duet from the second quarter). The final quarter, set mainly in New York speakeasies, does not have the wit, the light touch necessary. Both as scripted and played, the humor is too heavy. Nonetheless the action is rounded out to a fitting conclusion.
Technical credits are outstanding with fine sets by Junge, great camera-work by MacWilliams, and for the most part neat pacing and stylish direction from Hale.
In short, this another not-to-be-missed Jessie Matthews treat, with our heroine making the most of her catchy songs and energetic dance numbers.