Cary Loves Music

Louise Fuller (Grace Moore), an opera star of some note, is deported from the United States after she overstays her visa limits. Louise is eager to get back to the States - she has promised to assist her beloved tutor and uncle, Walter Mitchell (Henry Stephenson) by appearing in a music festival being held in his honor. The list for a visa is long - she'll have to wait for a year, unless she can find an American to marry. Enter artist Jimmy Hudson (Cary Grant), a foot-loose and fancy free young man, who initially disdains her snobbish demeanor. Our film this week is When You're in Love (1937).

With Cary Grant in a film, what's not to love? Well, this film, quite frankly. It's not that it is bad; it's that it is banal, and above-the-title Grace Moore really is no actress; she  was an opera singer that the studio was trying to make a star. While she is an wonderful singer, with a very expressive voice and demeanor WHEN she is singing, as an actress, she's a dud. Her lines are delivered with an almost flat tone; she never really seems interested in the action. As a result, she and Mr. Grant don't click.

Ms. Moore appeared in nine films between 1930 and 1939. Born in Tennessee (she was called "The Tennessee Nightingale"), she started her career on Broadway in 1913 (she would appear in 9 plays between 1913 and 1932); working her way from the chorus to featured performer in a number of musical reviews (like the Ziegeld Follies of 1931). After a couple of films in 1930, she signed a contract with Columbia in 1934. She was nominated for an Oscar for best actress for her work in One Night of Love (1934). By 1939, she was through with films, and working more steadily in opera companies. Married once to Spanish actor Valentín Parera, she died in a plane crash near Copenhagen (Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden was also killed in the crash). A scholarship is named for her at the University of Tennessee School of Voice.  

Cary Grant had just begun a new contract with Columbia (TCM article), which may account for him being billed below Ms. Moore and below the title (in his next films, Topper The Toast of New York, and The Awful Truth, he was still billed under his co-stars, but above the title). He really does his best to bring some exuberance to the film, and mostly he succeeds. But it's impossible to work around that fact that he's acting against someone who just doesn't project emotion very well. It is amusing that he is playing the American (with his delightful English-ish accent) while Ms. Moore is supposed to be Australian - with an American accent). One of his most delightful scenes is with the couple who raised him after his parents' deaths. His affection for them is transmitted right through the screen. 

Also in the cast is Aline MacMahon. She's wasted in this film; while she gets some good lines, she just doesn't get enough screen time. Similarly, Thomas Mitchell and Henry Stephenson are given very little to do. It's a shame when you have actors of their caliber who are not permitted to perform up to their abilities.
 

This was Robert Riskin's first directing gig; he'd written the screenplay for the film as well. Producer Harry Cohn was hoping that Riskin would break out Cary Grant in the way his scripts for It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town had for Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. Perhaps it was the loss of his collaborator, Frank Capra, but the magic didn't work for this picture, and it ended up losing money (Cary Grant: A Biography by Marc Eliot). 

The costumes by Bernard Newman are very lovely.The music includes several opera pieces, two songs by Jerome Kerns and Dorothy Fields, and a really terrific version of Ms. Moore singing (and Cary Grant playing the piano) of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" (a preview of the film did not, in fact, include that number (AFI catalog).

The film opened at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The New York Times review by Frank S. Nugent called it "a glib reworking of an ancient operatic formula." The Hollywood Reporter, however, enjoyed it, calling it "a signal triumph for the foremost diva of the screen..." 

For opera lovers, this film is worth a look - you can fast forward to the musical numbers (which mostly have nothing to do with the plot) and watch Ms. Moore sing, which is certainly worth doing. You can watch her doing "Minnie the Moocher" - she is really good!

We'll leave you with a snippet from When You're in Love's premier on GET-TV, which was able to show a restored copy of the film:

Grace Sings to Franchot

Grace Moore was a Broadway performer and Metropolitan Opera star long before she began to make films.  She has been credited with popularizing opera on screen, and was important enough to the film community that she was given equal billing to Maurice Chevalier (which he did NOT endorse.  In fact, it drove him from Hollywood), and was often given over-the-title billing as MISS Grace Moore.  Any film featuring Miss Moore is bound to contain many songs, and at least one operatic number.  Thus, The King Steps Out (1936) gives us Miss Moore (as Elizabeth/Cissy) singing her heart out to Franchot Tone (Emperor Franz Josef)

The plot is fairly simple.  Cissy, the daughter of Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria (Walter Connolly) is a free spirit who would rather be out in the woods than in the palace.  Her older sister Helena (Frieda Inescort) is in love with Captain Palfi (Victor Jory).  But with 6 daughters to marry off, the Duchess Louise (Nana Bryant) and her sister the Empress Sophia (Elisabeth Risdon) have agreed to a match between Helena and Sophia's son, Franz Josef, much to Cissy's disgust.  So, Cissy follows her mother and sister - with her father in tow - to try and stop the wedding.  Of course, given her predilection for peasant clothing, the Emperor mistakes her for a seamstress, and Cissy is not inclined to disoblige him of his error.

While this is not a great film, it is amusing.  It has a pleasant (though unsurprising script), with songs thrown in helter skelter to maximize Miss Moore's talents.  Loosely based on the the true story of Emperor Franz Joseph, who ended up marrying the younger sister of his intended, it feels like Pride and Prejudice meets The Merry Widow.  The film did well financially (though reviews were tepid) - this TCM article will give you more information about the film's history, and the director, Josef von Sternberg.

 

The biggest complaint we had about the film was that the scenes at the fair went on a little too long.  However, we were all quite taken with the gypsy woman (Eve Southern, an actress whose career extended back to the silent era), who is the smartest person in the film.  She is the only one who  recognizes the Emperor and who realizes that Cissy is in love with him.  Southern's breezy portrayal makes the character a memorable one, 

Grace Moore is approximately 38 in the film (she looks about 30) and is supposed to be playing a 20 year old.  She PLAYS it young, but you aren't deceived for a moment - she's actually several years older than her co-star, Tone.  She's not a bad actress, but she's here because of her magnificent soprano voice - it is that voice which sold the film.  It's interesting that the "ordinary" people, not the intellectuals, are the ones that would have brought in those film revenues.  (Today's producers would hide under a bed rather than risk money on an opera star.)  Miss Moore would only appear on the screen til 1939, but she continued to perform - for the USO during WWII, and for various opera companies.  She died in a plane crash in 1947.

Also in the cast, playing the older sister Helena, is Frieda Inescort.  While Helena at first seems the victim of much woe, she turns out to be quite the witch - she dumps her boyfriend because Franz Josef is cute, is quite nasty to her sister, and really is only interested in Franz Josef because he IS the emperor.  We rather hoped that Captain Palfi caught onto the fact that Helena was no great catch.  Of course, we've seen Ms. Inescort before - she spent much of her career as the second lead or the other woman in films - her aristocratic good looks played against her being a "regular" person.  She did not have an easy life, though. In the 1930's, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  After her husband's suicide in 1961 (they had been together since 1926), her condition worsened.  However, she used her fame to bring the illness to the public's attention, collecting money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society (from her wheelchair).  She died in 1976, at age 74.  
 
Quick nods to Franchot Tone, who is enjoyable as the Emperor, even if his curly wig is a bit off-putting (he wears a hat quite often, so that helped), and to Elisabeth Risdon as the mother-in-law from hell.  Even without talking, Risdon can give a look that would scare any perspective daughter-in-law.  Take a look for uncredited William Hopper as a soldier and young Gwen Verdon in the ballet troupe. 

 As we go, listen to Grace, as she sings to Franchot.