Evergreen

Evergreen (1934)

Harriet Green, a beloved and radiant music hall star of the Edwardian era, mysteriously disappears on the eve of her wedding. Years later, she reappears on the stage as young looking and beautiful as ever.

Date of release
1934-04-01
TMDB
6.4 / 10 (12)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Comedy, Romance, Music
Director
Victor Saville

Casting

Interesting facts

Evergreen is a 1934 British musical film directed by Victor Saville starring Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Barry MacKay. The film is based on the 1930 musical Ever Green, also starring Matthews, who plays a dual role as mother and daughter.

Production

Capitalising on the success of Jessie Matthews' performance in the 1930 West End production of Rodgers and Hart's Ever Green musical, and on film with The Good Companions. producer Michael Balcon engaged her for Emlyn Williams' film adaptation of Benn W. Levy's stage play. Harry M. Woods added four songs, dropping a number of the original Rodgers and Hart numbers.

RKO, Fred Astaire's Hollywood studio, prevented Balcon from engaging Astaire, who was then appearing in The Gay Divorce at London's Palace Theatre and wanted to appear with Matthews. Contemporary reviews commented that such a partnership would be popular with critics and public.

Even though Matthews was at the peak of her popularity at the time, she was close to a mental breakdown during the making of the film. In her autobiography, Over My Shoulder, Matthews credited director Victor Saville with providing her the support that she had needed to complete the filming.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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