This old, predictable film is just delightful :-D 41-year-old David Niven plays a good but uptight rich 35-year-old man who walks around with hearts in his eyes ever since he met Janet :-p and he’s just adorable.
The story is very simple and very predictable, ten minutes into the movie and you know it all; maybe it wasn’t back then, but now we’ve seen this kind of stories lots of times. Still, it is enjoyable, funny and sweet. There is a couple of dance numbers, but I liked these more than the usual American musical numbers: very pretty and light and enjoyable.
Let’s start from the beginning:
Janet Jones (Vera-Ellen) and her friend Mae (Diane hart) are American chorus dancers. They work for Mr Frost (Cesar Romero). They are all broke and trying to build a show in Scotland and avoid all the creditors chasing them :-p One morning Janet is late and tries hitchhiking. A man gives her a ride, and then later very kindly goes back to the theatre because in her hurry she forgot her purse in his car. It all starts here: he’s B.G. Bruno’s driver, and Bruno is the multi-millionaire played by Niven. When they see him there, the rumour starts. Well, it’s one girl in particular who spreads it, but when she said it it was like a bit of gossip, like girls teasing themselves with ‘you like him you like him!’ you know, in that spirit she said that Janet Jones is dating BG Bruno.. and when Frost hears that he thinks it’s his big chance! All hasty and impulsive as it’s his usual, he makes up his mind to make her the star of his show so that Bruno will invest in the show. Frost hires Janet back after she quitted because offended by his words (something like you’ll never be anything more than a chorus girl..) and has her sign a contract. Suddenly she finds that instead of wanting her to pay her debts, people are glad to give her more… and she doesn’t understand why until Mae explains it to her. Janet is not happy about it but Mae convinces her that whatever the reason this is her big chance, so she goes along with it. Bruno learns of her existence when he receives a bill for her clothes (I guess she never knew about the bill).
He goes to the theatre to talk to her and understand what is going on. That same day reporter Paul Tracy is there to write a piece about her, from chorus girl to star in one jump, but as it happens it’s Bruno that talks to her. She thinks it’s Paul, and he’s so enchanted by her that when he understands the mix-up he doesn’t correct her; I think he’s rather amused by the idea of getting to know her under a false identity, and is glad that she never pretends to be dating him, only to ‘have met him at a party in Egypt, near the pyramids, just a little to the left’… he’s very puzzled though when he sees his driver coming to get her… (now, how did that happen? Was he there specifically to drive her or she just happened to see the car and recognize the man? Either way she obviously knew the car and this puzzled him)
When Frost insists to meet Bruno at dinner, to show his creditors that he’s really interested in his show, Mae has the idea to ask Paul to pretend to be Bruno! He’s rather amused by the idea, although they seem to think that he’s doing a very poor job, not acting like a millionaire at all :-p he asks for a plain omelette or a soup, he doesn’t like cigars or lobsters or caviar “I think it’s very over-rated and much too expensive” :love: but I always love to see him dancing :-)
Next thing you know BG goes to Frost and gives him a check for 10.000£, asking only that he says nothing to Janet about it. Frost is not exactly the guy to pay any notice of those things, and when Janet sees ‘Paul’, she goes straight to Frost wondering what happened. Frost doesn't even try to hide it, despite his promise he lightly spills everything to Janet without a second thought, all cheerful. She tells Frost not to go to the bank because that man was not Bruno at all, it was just a friend pretending to be him… Frost takes it with dignity, I’d say, telling her it’s not her fault, because this is a 1951 British comedy, and everyone’s a gentleman… still, when Frost sees him in the theatre he thinks he’s still trying to ‘impersonate Bruno’ and wants him arrested. Janet does her best to help him escape, only he has no intention of going anywhere, he wants to see her show. He tells her that he’s really Bruno but she doesn’t believe him of course and she tells him that she can’t have him arrested “because I love you, you lunatic” , and he goes out the window saying “after the show I want to hear all that again about… about me being a lunatic”. The police get him, but the Inspector knows very well who he is, so now she believes him :-) Frost desperately looks for the check now that he knows it’s actually a good one, and the girl who started the whole thing finds it for him, and as a reward he finally pays attention to what she has been trying to tell him since the beginning: her father wants to invest money in the show! Frost almost faints :-p That serves him well for never listening, he always shouts :-p
Now, BG was the ‘all-work-and-no-play-makes-Bruno-a-dull-stiff-man kind of guy, and at first said to his man to deal with the matter of the bill he knew nothing about, but then I suppose he was hit where it hurts when his man Dodds came saying that “of course not ” and he “knew there must have been some mistake” and he “knew you couldn’t”, that he “wouldn’t..” … so Bruno makes up his mind to deal with it himself. He finds her immediately lovely, but is definitely won when she says “I find you most comfortable to talk to” and he says “oh you do?” with that smile that he’ll have from that moment on every time he looks at her :-) I liked that light way he had, that smile and the way he always looked at her, with hearts in his eyes, and the way he kept saying “I’d do anything for you Janet” :-) I really think that with other actors I wouldn’t have liked it so much, because: although as an actress she didn’t charm me, the dancing bits were lovely, much more than usual somehow, I liked this dancing moments, light and nice, less ‘grand’ but more interesting; other actors might have looked the part even more maybe, but wouldn’t have been so charming, wouldn’t have played it like that; when he went along with the misunderstanding he never looked like he was playing her, he always appeared to be gripped, totally charmed by her, simply taking advantage of the miraculous opportunity to get to know her, to see her again without the complications that his real identity would have provided.
It was rather strange that he was the only one to call her Janet, everybody else, including her, always said “Janet Jones”, it was a kind of joke throughout the film.
It is set in Scotland during a festival, but it could be set anywhere at any time of the year because that has no influence at all in the story.
It’s considered a musical, but the only dance numbers are for the theatre play where she dances with other dancers of the show, never with outsiders, never with Bruno - Bruno and Janet dance together at dinner, but it’s the normal kind of dancing, you know. There is never any ‘suddenly bursting into dancing or singing’ during the story. I liked that.
Things I could say against this film: as I said it was very very predictable; Frost was played too over the line to the point that he seemed to be on drugs sometimes, plus Frost had that annoying attitude of those who never listen to girls because he thinks girls never have anything important in their “little heads”. Well, he was wrong.
I found it very unkind when the driver talked to Betty; she said “give my love to Mr Bruno” and he replied “Somehow I don’t think he’d appreciate it”.. of course she doesn’t know Bruno and as he is now he would Not appreciate it, but said like that it seems it’s because of her!
- when Janet came running into the house, her landlady called her Mae twice.
This film put me in a happy mood for a whole day, kind of a miracle really, and I’d like to talk about it more, and more, but unfortunately I think I’ve said it all. I hope I was able to explain what I liked about it :-)
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