Slightly French

This is a remake of Lowe, Sothern starrer Let's fall in love (1933), which itself is one of many adaptations of Shaw's Pygmalion. Agreed that Shaw too had been influenced by, but that was minimal, from the original mythical story of the same name, unlike these, and many other set of movies. A perfectionist Director Ameche (Lowe) - need an European actress French (Swedish) when the star is indisposed (walks out) due to his tough attitude walks out. Trying to get away from it all, he visits a carnival, and finds a girl, who fits the bill - only then he finds she is a full blooded American, nothing French (Swedish) about her. He puts her under Language and Culture training and then springs the surprise on the unsuspecting studio, and public - who laps her up. By the time the cat is out of the bag, the movie has progressed too far to call it a day. In addition the financiers are elated, the lie exposed to/by the press had been a free publicity for heroine and movie. But by then the director is fired and with her love out of studio, heroine sulks (disappears). Within ( ) is the 1933 movie.

Though it was pre-Maisie - but the role was almost similar to the Maisie roles Sothern was to play later - and she fitted perfectly in it. And despite being partial to Ameche, I found Lowe much more convincing. The tough ruthless slave-driver might not have been Ameche's cup of tea.

But the main fault in this version wasn't actors. Lamour wasn't too far behind Sothern in that department, at least in this movie. It was in conceptualization/ direction. The clamour for Swedish actress was understood (Garbo was the Queen then - and with her neighbor, Dietrich etc, one could justify the attraction of Swedish Miss'. But in this era - Bardot or her neighbors, Loren, Gina etc were yet to be born (on screen) - in fact another lovely Swede, Bergman was still reigning - though about to go Italian. In addition to these, critical factors, which was necessary for the movie, there were quite a few other unconvincing episodes (e.g. Lamour's first meeting with the producer (Willard Parker). She had been trained to be french, she knows why, so she simply won't be acting American, while interacting with an unknown person, that too at home.

My recommendation is to watch the far superior 1933 movie.

Don Ameche was on the decline in his career and Dorothy Lamour still trying to acheive stardom outside those "Road" movies when this movie was made. It tries to borrow from Ameche's earlier hits with Alice Faye but the formula does not work here because Lamour is no Faye. And she is expected to carry it. Supporting performances from Page and Kennard is good but not enough. If it were made today, it would make a good video rental.

I knew nothing of this film, but watching it one immediately sees the extraordinary quality of the direction and production.

I didn't know that Dorothy Lamour began her career as a singer for a big band and later sang on radio for network shows. She was Miss New Orleans in 1931 and her heritage included being Spanish. Looking at her she reminds one of Katy Jurado and could have played roles for Latin characters. In this film I think she was especially effective when she played "herself", Mary the carny girl. The production numbers were excellent and indicated the direction dance numbers would be presented in the future. Don Ameche was excellent as always.

So this film was a very pleasant surprise.

Adorable movie with some beautifully shot scenes. I enjoyed it and my benchmark for this category is the Tracy-Hepburn movies. It is entertaining because of the period decor, costume. The plot is one of a romantic comedy.

SLIGHTLY FRENCH is a delightful little trifle starring Dorothy Lamour as a cynical carnival performer who is wooed by movie director Don Ameche to star in his new movie and feign being a great French star imported to America for the film. (Interestingly, this very plot was used that same year in IT'S A GREAT FEELING with Doris Day - and Day's Faux French femme's last name was Lamour!!!). Elegantly filmed by cultish director Douglas Sirk, SLIGHTLY FRENCH is not a classic but it's a very appealing little comedy/musical/drama with two excellent stars. Cannot believe one reviewer on IMDb wrote Lamour "never became a movie star" away from Hope and Crosby, she was only one of the biggest stars 1936-1949 in pictures and in 1941 was VARIETY magazine's top female box-office attraction. She starred in many excellent films sans Bob or Bing, THE HURRICANE, THE FLEET'S IN, JOHNNY APOLLO, SPAWN OF THE NORTH, etc. You'll note she gets billing over Ameche in this film. Alas, few of the big movie stars of the era have had their careers locked away in the vaults as Dorothy has - most of her films were at Paramount, and Universal (which now owns the 1930-1948 Paramount films) has done a very poor job getting most of them in circulation so most do only know her today from the Road movies. She was a great singer, a delightful screen star, and a fairly good actress too. Here's hoping this Columbia release will show up on Turner Classic Movies soon so more can see this lovely glamour girl in this underrated gem.