The Girl Said No

Robert Armstrong is a bookie. Irene Hervey is a hostess at a dime-a-dance hall. When she clips him, he bets his cronies he can take her for $500. He convinces her he is a theatrical agent, gets together a retired troupe of actors and uses some IOUs to put on a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's THE MIKADO for an evening. Yet he gradually comes to understand that all these people are going to ruin themselves for his ill-spirited joke.

For an old Savoyard like me, there are few joys as great as hearing the songs from the operettas well sung, and Andrew Stone, one of the few producer-writer-directors of the era has turned out a movie that not only offers the songs well, but uses them to establish the mood and character of the scenes. While I think that seeing these performances chopped up will reduce their impact on a modern audience, it should be remembered that this movie was not made for the second decade of the 21st Century, but for 1937, when the D'Oyley Carte Company was still in vigorous strength, both at their home at the Savoy Theater and on international tour; THE HOT MIKADO, with the music given a jazz beat, would open a couple of years after this, and be a hit; and Schertzinger's movie version of THE MIKADO would also be a success.

That time is gone, of course. While I saw the D'Oyley Carte on Broadway, that was decades ago. The company has been on life support since 2003. A recent revival was closed down because it featured Caucasian actors -- as if it were never a satire of Victorian England. For me, and people like me, this movie will be a delight.