GAIETY AND DANCING

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22418, 3 June 1938, Page 5

GAIETY AND DANCING

Jessie Matthews, the star of “Sailing Along,” now at the Civic, represents a stage type that belongs to England rather than to modern America. Her face has too much character to fit in with the American mode for lovely but meaningless masks. There is about her much of that same saucincss which has made Gracie Fields so popular on the stage. Added to this, of cour.se, she is not only graceful and charming, but as good a dancer as any. and a pleasing singer into the bargain: Never has she had better opportunities to display her famous singing and dancing talents and her well-known versatility Ilian in "Sailing Along.”

Jessie Matthews Starred in “Sailing Along”

She is supported by Jack Whiting, Roland Young, and Barry Mackay. Cast as .the adopted daughter of a bargee who becomes a famous dancer, Jessie Matthews has as partner in, the dancing sequences Jack Whiting, a newcomer to the British screen. He is well known in America, Where he has had considerable stage and screen experience, and while in England, playing the lead in "Anything Goes” during the illness of Leslie Henson, was chosen by Jessie Matthews as her first dancing partner on the screen. Jessie Matthews, as well as performing some novel dances, has several new songs to sing in this film, which is notable also for its exploitation of English scenery. Beautiful parts of the Thames Valley form the background of some of the scenes, others being filmed in the dockyard area, where Jessie Matthews will be seen at the helm of a sailing barge. The film begins in thoroughly English fashion on a sailing barge entering tlie Thames. Kate, the bargemaster’s adopted daughter, is as useful on board as most men, but her ambition is to dance on the stage. Meanwhile she dances whenever she can on the decks of the barge, much to the annoyance of the bargemaster’s son, who is busy taking various correspondence courses, and who is convinced that if he had SI SOOO he could make immense sums on the Slock Exchange. Then one day when the barge is delayed at a lock, Kate's, dancing attracts the attention of a soup millionaire whoso hobby is to collect geniuses. Most of his geniuses turn out to have no talent at all, but Kate takes a different course. She certainly fails the first time, she tries to show a theatrical producer what she can do, but she gets a thorough training afterwards. Some of the scenes while she is being put through her paces provide excellent opportunities for comedy of her own inimitable kind. One of the best parts of the film is a dance sequence set on the London waterfront, with Jessie Matthews and Jack Whiting together. The chief supporting film is unusually interesting. It is called "The Gap.” and it shows how England is organised for defence against, air attack, Sylvia Sidney and Hedy Lamarr are both down to play in "Algiers,” with Charles Boyer. There was only one very important woman’s part in the original “Pepe Le Moko,” and the situation is said to he causing some hard feelings. * ♦ * Margaret -Sull avan w 111 play AlipaiiiU Fernand Gravet In “Slightly Married” (tlie new Lives”), She may also replace Myrna Loy as Clark Gable’s leading lady in “Too Hot to Handle.” ifc . * Jan K-iepura, Marthe Eggerth, and Leopold Stokowski,'may all appear together in a musical for Universal. Universal ’ meant to co-star Marthe Eggerth and John Boles, but Stokowski suggested Kiepura. • . .♦ « George Murphy has gone on loan to Universal for the lead in “Letter of Introduction,” “ with Andrea Leeds, Adolphe Menjou and Charlie McCarthy. Henry Fonda worked on - the part for’several days,, but decided it was not suitable for him.