First a Girl (1935)

Inhalt - Synopsis

Viktor und Elizabeth sind zwei Namenlose im Showgeschäft. Er arbeitet als Damenimitator unter dem Bühnenamen "Viktoria" und träumt von Shakespeare-Rollen, sie putzt Türklinken bei Theateragenten, dabei wäre sie gern eine Starsängerin. Als Viktor krank wird, springt Elizabeth für ihn ein. Sie zieht sich Hosen an, opfert ihre Haarpracht und spielt fortan auf der Bühne einen Mann, der eine Frau spielt – und im richtigen Leben als Frau einen Mann. Alles läuft bestens, bis Elizabeth sich – als Mann – in Robert verliebt. Wird es trotz der durcheinandergewirbelten Geschlechterrollen ein Happy-End geben?

Viktor and Elizabeth are two unknowns waiting for their breakthrough in show business: He barely makes a living doing female impersonations as "Viktoria", but what he really wants to do is Shakespeare. She's an unemployed actress, vainly dreaming of a career as a singer. When Viktor gets sick, Elizabeth agrees to substitute for him. She puts on a suit, sacrifices her hairdo, and from now on plays a man who dresses up as a woman for the stage act – while off-stage she has to maintain her male identity. The risky travesty works fine, until Elizabeth – as a man –falls in love with Robert. Will there be a happy-end despite the gender-bending confusion?

Kritik

First a girl – and the natural corollary »then a boy« and it was a pity there was so much fuss as to which Elizabeth (Miss Jessie Matthews) was. A pity, because scenes which depend upon the sharing of a bedroom between three men, one of whom the audience knows to be a girl, and the difficulties of mixed bathing are, in their very essence, bound neither to delight nor to surprise. Take the kernel of the plot away and there is left a musical comedy which has plenty of humour – of invention even – and of chorus effects which do not so much imitate the more ambitious efforts of Hollywood as attempt, and successfully attempt, a variation on them. There is not so much that well-known effort to take the camera high up above and make it turn the chorus into an expanding and contracting jelly-fish as a real attempt to make massed black-and-white into charming and dexterous patterns.

The Times, 6.11.1935.


Regie: Victor Saville. Buch: Marjorie Gaffney; nach dem Film »Viktor und Viktoria« von Reinhold Schünzel. Kamera: Glen MacWilliams. Bauten: O. F. Werndorff. Kostüme: Joe Strassner. Garderobe: Marianne. Schnitt: Al Barnes. Ton: A. C. O'Donoghue. Musik: Bretton Byrd, Leighton Lucas. Musical Director: Louis Levy. Lieder: Maurice Sigler, Al Goodhart, Al Hoffman. Musik-Titel: »Little Silkworm«, »Wiggle My Ears«, »Written All Over My Face«, »Half-and-Half«, »Say the Word and It's Yours«. Choreografie: Ralph Reader.

Darsteller: Jessie Matthews (Elizabeth), Sonnie Hale (Victor), Anna Lee (Princess), Griffith Jones (Robert), Alfred Drayton (McLintock), Constance Godridge (Daryl), Eddie Gray (Goose Trainer), Martita Hunt (Seraphina), Donald Stewart (Singer).

Produktion: Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, London. Produzent: Michael Balcon. Produktionsleitung: S. C. Balcon. Drehort: Shepherd's Bush Studios London.Außenaufnahmen: Riviera. Länge: 92 min, 8273 ft = 2521 m. Format: 35mm, s/w, 1:1.33, Ton. Uraufführung: 6.11.1935, London (Prince Edward, Trade Show); 3.2.1936 (Release).