It's Love Again

“A musical film, starring the brightest singer-dancer of the British cinema of the 1930's - Jessie Matthews. It's Love Again is considered to be her best film (although one is certain that this might be contested) but today, with the awakened interest in musicals and nostalgic things, one hopes that Jessie Matthews' work will be revived more often. It is, perhaps, the most lavish of her musicals, for by 1936 she had made enough successful films to be given the ‘star treatment.' The story is the gossamer stuff of make-believe. A press agent invents a beautiful lady called ‘Mrs. Smythe-Smythe,' supposedly a tiger huntress from India being pursued by a maharajah. A young musical hopeful, Elaine, decides to take advantage of the publicity, and pretends to be the exotic lady in order to attract producers and get a job. Every possible twist and comic situation is gleaned from this business, and Miss Matthews, lithe, dark-haired and energetic, does a variety of exceptionally charming dances. In dance style she was unique, combining that swirling, skirt-turning grace of an Anna Neagle with the lowdown tap rhythms of an Eleanor Powell. However, Jessie Matthews reminded one of neither of these dancers - she was, with a certain piquant look about her, a lyric heroine in a sudden ecstatic trance. There had been some talk of teaming Miss Matthews with Fred Astaire at one point when Miss Rogers was growing sulky and glancing toward more dramatic muses. It never happened, the war broke out, and Miss Matthews gradually turned away from her career. Still, she has a number of films to commemorate her special gifts.”

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