Head over Heels (1937 film)

Head Over Heels is a 1937 British musical film directed by Sonnie Hale and starring Jessie Matthews, Robert Flemyng and Louis Borel.[1] It was released in the U.S. as Head over Heels in Love.[2]

Head over Heels
Directed bySonnie Hale
Produced byS.C. Balcon
Written byscenario:
Marjorie Gaffney
adaptation:
Dwight Taylor
& Fred Thompson
dialogue:
Dwight Taylor
Based onplay by Francis de Croisset
StarringJessie Matthews
Robert Flemyng
Louis Borel
Romney Brent
Music bywords & music:
Mack Gordon
& Harry Revel
musical director:
Louis Levy
CinematographyGlen MacWilliams
Edited byAl Barnes
Production
company
Distributed byGaumont British Distributors
Release date
  • 15 January 1937 (1937-01-15) (London, UK)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Production

The film was made at the Lime Grove Studios in London[3] with sets designed by Alfred Junge. It was based on the play Pierre ou Jack by Francis de Croisset (Paris, 1931).[4]

Plot

In Paris, nightclub entertainer Jeanne (Jessie Matthews) falls in love with her dance partner, the idle, womanising Marcel (Louis Borel). When Marcel runs off with rich and glamorous film star Norma (Helen Whitney Bourne), Jeanne's true love Pierre (Robert Flemyng) comes to her aid, and helps find her work on the radio. After becoming a successful radio star, Jeanne becomes attractive once more to Marcel, but the faithful Pierre cannot risk losing her again.

Cast

Critical reception

Writing for The Spectator in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a poor review, characterizing it as "a moribund tale of poor young people with ambitions in Parisian garrets". Greene concludes that the film is one of the "worst English film[s] of the quarter".[5]

The Radio Times wrote, "Having made her movie name under the direction of Victor Saville, Jessie Matthews went to work for her four-time co-star and then husband Sonnie Hale, whose first outing behind the camera this was," but concluded, "Hale's inexperience shows away from the musical numbers. But it's engaging enough, and Alfred Junge's sets give the film a sophistication too often missing from British musicals of the period";[6] while Allmovie wrote, "Legendary British musical-comedy favorite Jessie Matthews chalks up another winner."[7]

References
  1. "BFI | Film & TV Database | HEAD OVER HEELS (1937)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 April 2009. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  2. "Head over Heels in Love (1937) - Notes - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies.
  3. Wood p.90
  4. "Head over Heels in Love (1937) - Screenplay Info - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies.
  5. Greene, Graham (19 March 1937). "Pluck of the Irish/The Sequel to Second Bureau/Thunder in the City/Head Over Heels". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. pp. 138–139. ISBN 0192812866.)
  6. "Head over Heels in Love – review - cast and crew, movie star rating and where to watch film on TV and online". Radio Times.
  7. "Head Over Heels in Love (1937) - Sonnie Hale - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.

Bibliography
  • Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
  • Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.
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