PLAZA THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 15

PLAZA THEATRE

■f-. ‘Head Over Heels' Almost the entire weight of the Gau-mont-British production ‘Head Oyer Heels,” at the Plaza Theatre, is earned on the slim shoulders of Jessie Matthews, but such is her special talent and versatility that hardly once does the entertainment stumble. Still, it is only proper to recognise that the picture would.have been even better if the star had been given m< The 'song-writers, Mack Gordon and Harry Ravel, have done their part of the work very well, and among the six numbers with which the musical side of the film is stocked there should be at least a couple that will find strong favour with the public. Nor will the stars admirers find any reason to complain about her singing and dancing: she has a style of her own and here it is given tull scope. But one can hardly help noticing the lack of those elaborate musical spectacles which worn such a feature of previous Jessie Matthews pictures. Only once is a chorus used, and then it is a small and unpretentious one of eight men. Despite a paucity of original comedy, there is much wit in the dialogue and many of the situations are genuinely laughable. Robert Flemyng is inclined to be wooden as the hero, but an excellent performance comes from Louis Borell, as the sophisticated philanderer who makes the course of true love for the hero and heroine anything but smooth. With her twinkling feet, her expressive features, and her pleasing voice, Jessie Matthews dominates the picture, and assisted by the able direction of her husband, Sonnie Hale, carries it along at a merry pace. There are opportunities also for her to score as an emotional actress. The story, which is told with many changes of scene and some highly effective photography, presents the romantic vicissitudes of an ambitious cabaret artiste in Paris who is called upon to choose between an earnest young inventor and a glamorous man of the world who finds it difficult to keep his affections in one place for any length of time. Though the basis of the plot is stereotyped, there is considerable novelty and interest in its devlopment.