{{Short description|1935 British comedy film}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = First a Girl | image = First a Girl (1935).jpg | caption = Film poster | director = [[Victor Saville]] | producer = S. C. Balcon<br>[[Michael Balcon]] | writer = [[Marjorie Gaffney]] | based_on = an original screenplay by [[Reinhold Schünzel]] | starring = [[Jessie Matthews]] | music = '''songs:'''<br>[[Maurice Sigler|M. Sigler]]<br>[[Al Goodhart|A.Goodhart]]<br>[[Al Hoffman|A. Hoffman]]<br>'''musical director:'''<br>[[Louis Levy]] | cinematography = [[Glen MacWilliams]] | editing = Al Barnes | studio = [[Gaumont British|Gaumont British Picture Corpn. Ltd.]] | distributor = [[Gaumont British]] | released = {{film date|df=y|1935|11|07|London, England}} | runtime = 94 minutes | country = England | language = English }} '''''First a Girl''''' is a 1935 British [[comedy film]] directed by [[Victor Saville]] and starring [[Jessie Matthews]].<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/91521/First-a-Girl/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119020858/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/91521/First-a-Girl/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 November 2007 |title=New York Times: First a Girl |access-date=20 July 2008| first=Andre |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2007 | last=Sennwald}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aa2e174|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817082824/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aa2e174|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 August 2017|title=First a Girl (1935)}}</ref> ''First a Girl'' was adapted from the 1933 German film ''[[Viktor und Viktoria]]'' written and directed by [[Reinhold Schünzel]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Victor/Victoria (1982) - Articles - TCM.com|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94780/victor-victoria#articles-reviews?articleId=12761|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926051123/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94780/Victor-Victoria/#articles-reviews?articleId=12761|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 September 2011|website=Turner Classic Movies}}</ref> It was remade as the 1982 American musical comedy [[Victor Victoria|''Victor/Victoria'']] starring [[Julie Andrews]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/v52384|title=Victor/Victoria (1982) - Blake Edwards - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie|website=AllMovie}}</ref>
==Plot== In 1930's London, Elizabeth, an aspiring singer, quits her menial job in a posh luxury fashion shop. Caught in a rainstorm, she ducks into a crowded coffeehouse, where she finds herself sitting opposite an actor named Victor. Though he dreams of performing Shakespeare, Victor poses in drag in a music-hall act called 'Victoria'. He accompanies her to his boarding house, where he finds a message asking him to perform that evening. Unfortunately, he has laryngitis, due to the storm. Then Victor has an idea: Elizabeth could stand in for him and sing as a female impersonator. That night, Elizabeth's first performance is a huge success, prompting big-time promoter McLintock to come backstage and offer Elizabeth a contract. Thus, with Victor as her manager, Elizabeth tours Europe as female impersonator 'Bill' using Victor's stage name 'Victoria'.
One evening, Princess Mironoff and her fiancé Robert attend one of 'Bill's' performances. Robert finds he is attracted to the woman on stage. But when she takes off her wig to reveal boyishly cropped hair, he is shocked and embarrassed. At a nightclub after the show Victor attempts to charm the Princess with Shakespeare recitations as Robert has a manly chat with 'Bill'. Elizabeth is forced to smoke a cigar and drink large whiskeys as she attempts to maintain the pretense that she is a man. Later, when the Princess finds a feminine hair comb under 'Bill's' chair, she suspects 'Bill' is indeed a woman. She and Robert invite their new friends to travel with them to the South of France with the intention of tricking 'Bill' into revealing his true gender. The three 'men' are forced to share a room in a guesthouse for a night, but Elizabeth manages to maintain her disguise.
At the villa she has rented with Victor, Elizabeth revels in the chance to wear women's clothes again. Swimming in the sea, she nearly drowns when Robert surprises her; he has to use lifesaving techniques to get her back to shore. In a tight fitting swimsuit, there is no doubt that she is a woman. Robert, slightly embarrassed, apologizes and swims away. Tired of pretending to be a man, Elizabeth tells the Princess she is in love with Robert. However, Victor, who has designs on the Princess, must explain to all that he and Elizabeth are just good friends. Meanwhile, a nosy newspaper reporter glimpses 'Bill' in women's clothing and threatens to expose her deception. But Victor saves the day by posing as 'Bill' performing in drag to amusing effect. The Princess pledges to fund Victor in Shakespearean theater, and despite Elizabeth having a man's passport, she is waved across the French border to begin her new life with Robert.
==Cast== {{div col}} * [[Jessie Matthews]] as Elizabeth * [[Sonnie Hale]] as Victor * [[Anna Lee]] as Princess Mironoff * [[Griffith Jones (actor)|Griffith Jones]] as Robert * [[Alfred Drayton]] as Mr. McLintock * Constance Godridge as Beryl * Eddie Gray as Goose Trainer * [[Martita Hunt]] as Madame Seraphina * [[Donald Stewart (actor)|Donald Stewart]] as Singer {{div col end}}
==Critical reception== [[BFI Screenonline]] wrote, "Of all the Matthews/Hale collaborations, this one seems the most polished and even-handed. A huge success at the time it was released, ''First a Girl'' is possibly the quintessential Jessie Matthews musical and certainly the most enduringly amusing for a modern audience."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/491264/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: First A Girl (1935)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0026361|title=First a Girl}} *{{Screenonline title|491264}}
{{Victor Saville}} {{Michael Balcon}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:First A Girl}} [[Category:1935 films]] [[Category:1935 musical comedy films]] [[Category:British musical comedy films]] [[Category:British black-and-white films]] [[Category:Cross-dressing in British films]] [[Category:Films directed by Victor Saville]] [[Category:Films produced by Michael Balcon]] [[Category:British remakes of German films]] [[Category:Films set in London]] [[Category:Films set in France]] [[Category:1935 English-language films]] [[Category:1935 British films]] [[Category:English-language musical comedy films]]