Her singing is always marvelous, and her acting generally is too, so this film was a surprise. Dunne is very stagey, even hammy in this movie, quite a disappointment since she was one of the great actresses of the 1930s. Compare this with her marvelous performance less than six months later in "Roberta," where she and Ginger Rogers light up the screen.
This adds credence to the opinion that Bill Seiter was a much better director than he's been given credit for; that later film is immensely superior to Wellman's efforts here. Budget constraints aren't really the issue with this movie - the sets are simple but all that are required. It's the acting that makes the movie droop. Reginald Owen gives the best performance in his bit part as a mistreated official, a role he patented and could do in his sleep. Boland & O'Connor always played the same character (Owen more or less did too) yet their performances which add steam to most of their movies just seem trite in this one.
It's always worth watching a movie that has Irene Dunne singing, but there isn't much more to this one.
This adds credence to the opinion that Bill Seiter was a much better director than he's been given credit for; that later film is immensely superior to Wellman's efforts here. Budget constraints aren't really the issue with this movie - the sets are simple but all that are required. It's the acting that makes the movie droop. Reginald Owen gives the best performance in his bit part as a mistreated official, a role he patented and could do in his sleep. Boland & O'Connor always played the same character (Owen more or less did too) yet their performances which add steam to most of their movies just seem trite in this one.
It's always worth watching a movie that has Irene Dunne singing, but there isn't much more to this one.