This somewhat tedious musical comedy from director Norman Z. McLeod has at least one supreme virtue, namely the intoxicatingly beautiful photography by Lionel Lindon. Lindon is the only Hollywood photographer I know who managed to rise from his grave and direct the photography of two movies after his death. Lindon died in 1971, yet supposedly directed photography on a TV movie, "Don't Push, I'll Charge When I'm Ready" in 1977, and then made another TV movie, "The Meanest Men in the West" in 1978. The answer to this conundrum is probably that Lindon photographed these TV films before he died, but for some reason (Censorship? Tied up in legal proceedings?) the films were not aired until six or seven years later. Getting back to our musical comedy, Isn't It Romantic?, aside from Lindon's alluringly beautiful black-and-white photography, the movie has not a great deal to recommend it. Not only is the script somewhat tedious, plot-wise, but equally hackneyed and uninspired in its characterizations. And as for the interminable and super-boring dialogue
The movie looked so promising from its credits too. Hard to believe that Veronica Lake, Billy De Wolfe, Roland Culver and Pearl Bailey could deliver such lackluster performances! And alack and alas, the songs are equally uninspired! In short, "Isn't It Romantic?" is anything but romantic. In fact, it's almost a total bore!
3 Reviews
Veronica Lake with no bang
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre23 January 2004
There are obvious reasons for naming a movie after a well-known song, but audiences will expect that song to be performed in the movie. Just occasionally, Hollywood cranked out a movie named for a song that does NOT get performed on the movie's soundtrack. One example of this is the amusing Paramount musical 'And the Angels Sing', which contains several pleasant original songs but not the hit song which supplies its title. Another such film (also from Paramount) is 'Isn't It Romantic?', which takes its title from a Rodgers and Hart song which is NOT sung in this movie. Which is fine with me, because the soupy ballad 'Isn't It Romantic?' is probably the worst song Rodgers and Hart ever wrote. I always laugh at the scene in 'The Palm Beach Story' when Rudy Vallee starts to sing 'Isn't It Romantic?' and Claudette Colbert immediately tells him to shut up.
'Isn't It Romantic?' stars Veronica Lake, one of the best examples of a movie career based on a gimmick. Lake had a whispery little-girl voice (with a pleasant Brooklyn accent) matched with a womanly face and physique in a child-sized body. But her appeal came from that distinctive peekaboo bang. During WW2 the Defence Department pressured Paramount to change Lake's hairstyle ... because female workers in defence plants were copying Lake's coiffure, and their peekaboo bangs kept getting caught in the machinery. With her beautiful long blonde hair constrained in a normal hairstyle, Veronica Lake lost her bang (in more than one sense), and her stardom swiftly evaporated. To her credit, Lake never claimed to be an actress; she knew she was just a starlet with a gimmick. Yet almost everyone who worked with Lake thought highly of her. One exception was Fredric March: during the filming of 'I Married a Witch', March and Lake openly despised each other... but this appears to have been March's fault more than hers.
'Isn't It Romantic?' takes place in the southern United States during the Gilded Age. English actor Roland Culver plays Major Euclid Cameron, a former Confederate officer, now a widower raising his three daughters in genteel poverty. Veronica Lake plays the eldest daughter, wearing her hair in an upswept bouffant that's far less attractive than her peekaboo bang. This movie is just barely a musical; the songs are so few and far between that the transitions between plot line and song are always jarring. The plot (what there is of it) concerns the consequences when the Cameron family's meagre savings are stolen by handsome scoundrel Rick Brannon (played by another English actor, Patric Knowles). Why did this movie cast two Englishmen as Southerners?
Billy De Wolfe is on hand, in his prissy mode, which I always find annoying. Somebody once told me that Billy De Wolfe was raised in Wales, but you certainly wouldn't know it from his accent in this movie. Also on hand here is Pearl Bailey, playing that annoying racial stereotype: the 'sassy' black maidservant. Bailey gives a dull rendition of a dull song called 'I Shoulda Quit When I Was Ahead'. Yeah, Pearlie Mae, ya shoulda.
'Isn't It Romantic?' is an extremely dull film. I find Veronica Lake extremely sexy in all of her peekaboo roles, but quite uninteresting without that peekaboo bang. In fact, in 'Sullivan's Travels' I found Lake very sexy right up until she tucked away her hair and disguised herself as a boy ... that's when I straight away lost interest. There's no bang, peekaboo or otherwise, in 'Isn't It Romantic?' either. I'll rate this movie one point out of 10.
'Isn't It Romantic?' stars Veronica Lake, one of the best examples of a movie career based on a gimmick. Lake had a whispery little-girl voice (with a pleasant Brooklyn accent) matched with a womanly face and physique in a child-sized body. But her appeal came from that distinctive peekaboo bang. During WW2 the Defence Department pressured Paramount to change Lake's hairstyle ... because female workers in defence plants were copying Lake's coiffure, and their peekaboo bangs kept getting caught in the machinery. With her beautiful long blonde hair constrained in a normal hairstyle, Veronica Lake lost her bang (in more than one sense), and her stardom swiftly evaporated. To her credit, Lake never claimed to be an actress; she knew she was just a starlet with a gimmick. Yet almost everyone who worked with Lake thought highly of her. One exception was Fredric March: during the filming of 'I Married a Witch', March and Lake openly despised each other... but this appears to have been March's fault more than hers.
'Isn't It Romantic?' takes place in the southern United States during the Gilded Age. English actor Roland Culver plays Major Euclid Cameron, a former Confederate officer, now a widower raising his three daughters in genteel poverty. Veronica Lake plays the eldest daughter, wearing her hair in an upswept bouffant that's far less attractive than her peekaboo bang. This movie is just barely a musical; the songs are so few and far between that the transitions between plot line and song are always jarring. The plot (what there is of it) concerns the consequences when the Cameron family's meagre savings are stolen by handsome scoundrel Rick Brannon (played by another English actor, Patric Knowles). Why did this movie cast two Englishmen as Southerners?
Billy De Wolfe is on hand, in his prissy mode, which I always find annoying. Somebody once told me that Billy De Wolfe was raised in Wales, but you certainly wouldn't know it from his accent in this movie. Also on hand here is Pearl Bailey, playing that annoying racial stereotype: the 'sassy' black maidservant. Bailey gives a dull rendition of a dull song called 'I Shoulda Quit When I Was Ahead'. Yeah, Pearlie Mae, ya shoulda.
'Isn't It Romantic?' is an extremely dull film. I find Veronica Lake extremely sexy in all of her peekaboo roles, but quite uninteresting without that peekaboo bang. In fact, in 'Sullivan's Travels' I found Lake very sexy right up until she tucked away her hair and disguised herself as a boy ... that's when I straight away lost interest. There's no bang, peekaboo or otherwise, in 'Isn't It Romantic?' either. I'll rate this movie one point out of 10.
It would have been, had there actually been romance!
mark.waltz1 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The same year that this disappointing period musical from Paramount came out, Monogram released a film called "Music Man" in their "Teenagers" series. That forgotten B film was much more entertaining than this A release from one of the five major studios, and indicated to me that this film needed a character like Harold Hill to stir things up. indeed, this is in the neck of the woods of the United States where Hill, in Broadway's "The Music Man", traveled around, conning the townsfolk. Pretty much nothing happens in the 90 minutes of this slice of life piece of nostalgia where instead of bread, the audience is given crumbs.
The story focuses on a southern export to the north, confederate civil war veteran Roland Culver who can't seem to let the past go even though he has changed his whereabouts. He has three daughters who have dared to go "north" on him, and that's pretty much creates the only conflict within this family. Much of it involves the romantic issues of the three daughters (Veronica Lake, Mary Hatcher, Mona Freeman) which doesn't really create any story. Their three men, Billy De Wolfe, Patrick Knowles and Richard Webb, are basically cardboard cutouts and don't resemble any human being, living or dead. Only De Wolfe shows any spark, and that is because he has written to be a complete buffoon.
in her film debut, Pearl Bailey is the family domestic, commenting sardonically on the action (or lack of it) through two inconsequential songs. The title is only heard over the opening credits, and as answered by a famous classic movie critic with a one-word review, has had more notoriety than the film has had viewings since its original release. There are a few amusing moments, such as the sisters and De Wolfe's recreation of a Nickelodeon movie show, a musical number leading to a town picnic and the outcome of an explosive put in a band tuba. But a few funny moments do not make a good film, and none of the performances really warrant any praise. With the number of nostalgic period musicals made around this time, this is by far the weakest. Stick with "Mother Wore Tights", "Centennial Summer", or even "Summer Holiday". To quote an old Grace Moore song, I'll take romance, but unfortunately I did not find that here.
The story focuses on a southern export to the north, confederate civil war veteran Roland Culver who can't seem to let the past go even though he has changed his whereabouts. He has three daughters who have dared to go "north" on him, and that's pretty much creates the only conflict within this family. Much of it involves the romantic issues of the three daughters (Veronica Lake, Mary Hatcher, Mona Freeman) which doesn't really create any story. Their three men, Billy De Wolfe, Patrick Knowles and Richard Webb, are basically cardboard cutouts and don't resemble any human being, living or dead. Only De Wolfe shows any spark, and that is because he has written to be a complete buffoon.
in her film debut, Pearl Bailey is the family domestic, commenting sardonically on the action (or lack of it) through two inconsequential songs. The title is only heard over the opening credits, and as answered by a famous classic movie critic with a one-word review, has had more notoriety than the film has had viewings since its original release. There are a few amusing moments, such as the sisters and De Wolfe's recreation of a Nickelodeon movie show, a musical number leading to a town picnic and the outcome of an explosive put in a band tuba. But a few funny moments do not make a good film, and none of the performances really warrant any praise. With the number of nostalgic period musicals made around this time, this is by far the weakest. Stick with "Mother Wore Tights", "Centennial Summer", or even "Summer Holiday". To quote an old Grace Moore song, I'll take romance, but unfortunately I did not find that here.
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