# First a Girl > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/First_a_Girl > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/First_a_Girl.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_a_Girl > Source revision: 1339450817 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1935 British comedy film First a Girl Film poster Directed by Victor Saville Written by Marjorie Gaffney Based on an original screenplay by Reinhold Schünzel Produced by S. C. Balcon Michael Balcon Starring Jessie Matthews Cinematography Glen MacWilliams Edited by Al Barnes Music by songs: M. Sigler A.Goodhart A. Hoffman musical director: Louis Levy Production company Gaumont British Picture Corpn. Ltd. Distributed by Gaumont British Release dates 7 November 1935 (1935-11-07) (London, England) Running time 94 minutes Country England Language English ***First a Girl*** is a 1935 British [comedy film](/source/Comedy_film) directed by [Victor Saville](/source/Victor_Saville) and starring [Jessie Matthews](/source/Jessie_Matthews).[1][2] *First a Girl* was adapted from the 1933 German film *[Viktor und Viktoria](/source/Viktor_und_Viktoria)* written and directed by [Reinhold Schünzel](/source/Reinhold_Sch%C3%BCnzel).[3] It was remade as the 1982 American musical comedy [*Victor/Victoria*](/source/Victor_Victoria) starring [Julie Andrews](/source/Julie_Andrews).[4] ## 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 - [Jessie Matthews](/source/Jessie_Matthews) as Elizabeth - [Sonnie Hale](/source/Sonnie_Hale) as Victor - [Anna Lee](/source/Anna_Lee) as Princess Mironoff - [Griffith Jones](/source/Griffith_Jones_(actor)) as Robert - [Alfred Drayton](/source/Alfred_Drayton) as Mr. McLintock - Constance Godridge as Beryl - Eddie Gray as Goose Trainer - [Martita Hunt](/source/Martita_Hunt) as Madame Seraphina - [Donald Stewart](/source/Donald_Stewart_(actor)) as Singer ## Critical reception [BFI Screenonline](/source/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."[5] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-NY_Times_1-0)** Sennwald, Andre (2007). ["New York Times: First a Girl"](https://web.archive.org/web/20071119020858/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/91521/First-a-Girl/overview). Movies & TV Dept. *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Archived from [the original](https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/91521/First-a-Girl/overview) on 19 November 2007. Retrieved 20 July 2008. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["First a Girl (1935)"](https://web.archive.org/web/20170817082824/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aa2e174). Archived from [the original](http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aa2e174) on 17 August 2017. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Victor/Victoria (1982) - Articles - TCM.com"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110926051123/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94780/Victor-Victoria/#articles-reviews?articleId=12761). *Turner Classic Movies*. Archived from [the original](https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94780/victor-victoria#articles-reviews?articleId=12761) on 26 September 2011. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Victor/Victoria (1982) - Blake Edwards - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie"](http://www.allmovie.com/movie/v52384). *AllMovie*. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["BFI Screenonline: First A Girl (1935)"](http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/491264/index.html). *www.screenonline.org.uk*. ## External links - [*First a Girl*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026361/) at [IMDb](/source/IMDb_(identifier)) - [*First a Girl*](http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/491264/) at the [BFI](/source/British_Film_Institute)'s [Screenonline](/source/Screenonline) v t e Films directed by Victor Saville The Arcadians (1927) Tesha (1928) Kitty (1929) Woman to Woman (1929) The W Plan (1930) A Warm Corner (1930) The Sport of Kings (1931) Hindle Wakes (1931) Michael and Mary (1931) Sunshine Susie (1931) The Faithful Heart (1932) Love on Wheels (1932) The Good Companions (1933) I Was a Spy (1933) Friday the Thirteenth (1933) Evergreen (1934) Evensong (1934) The Iron Duke (1934) The Dictator (1935) Me and Marlborough (1935) First a Girl (1935) It's Love Again (1936) Action for Slander (1937) Dark Journey (1937) Storm in a Teacup (1937) South Riding (1938) The Earl of Chicago (1940) Forever and a Day (1943) Tonight and Every Night (1945) The Green Years (1946) Green Dolphin Street (1947) Desire Me (1947, uncredited) If Winter Comes (1947) Conspirator (1949) Kim (1950) Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) 24 Hours of a Woman's Life (1952) The Long Wait (1954) The Silver Chalice (1954) My Gun Is Quick (1957) v t e Films produced by Michael Balcon The Rat (1925) The Sea Urchin (1926) The Triumph of the Rat (1926) The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926) The Mountain Eagle (1926) Blighty (1927) Downhill (1927) The Rolling Road (1927) Easy Virtue (1927) One of the Best (1927) The Vortex (1927) A South Sea Bubble (1928) A Light Woman (1928) The First Born (1928) The Wrecker (1929) The Return of the Rat (1929) City of Play (1929) Taxi for Two (1929) Woman to Woman (1929) Jack's the Boy (1932) I Was a Spy (1933) It's a Boy (1933) Friday the Thirteenth (1933) Princess Charming (1934) Evergreen (1934) Red Ensign (1934) Along Came Sally (1934) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Car of Dreams (1935) First a Girl (1935) Me and Marlborough (1935) The 39 Steps (1935) Stormy Weather (1935) Things Are Looking Up (1935) The First Offence (1936) Tudor Rose (1936) The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936) Secret Agent (1936) Where There's a Will (1936) Windbag the Sailor (1936) Doctor Syn (1937) A Yank at Oxford (1938) The Gaunt Stranger (1938) The Four Just Men (1939) Cheer Boys Cheer (1939) Let George Do It! (1940) The Proud Valley (1940) The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) Ships with Wings (1941) Turned Out Nice Again (1941) The Big Blockade (1942) Went the Day Well? (1942) The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942) My Learned Friend (1943) The Foreman Went to France (1942) Undercover (1943) The Bells Go Down (1943) San Demetrio London (1943) Nine Men (1943) For Those in Peril (1944) Champagne Charlie (1944) The Halfway House (1944) Fiddlers Three (1944) Dead of Night (1945) Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945) They Came to a City (1945) Johnny Frenchman (1945) The Captive Heart (1946) The Overlanders (1946) Hue and Cry (1947) It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947) The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) Frieda (1947) Against the Wind (1948) Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) Another Shore (1948) Scott of the Antarctic (1948) Train of Events (1949) Passport to Pimlico (1949) Whisky Galore! (1949) A Run for Your Money (1949) Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) Cage of Gold (1950) The Blue Lamp (1950) The Magnet (1950) The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) Pool of London (1951) The Man in the White Suit (1951) Mandy (1952) The Cruel Sea (1953) The Maggie (1954) The Night My Number Came Up (1955) Touch and Go (1955) The Ladykillers (1955) The Long Arm (1956) Barnacle Bill (1957) The Man in the Sky (1957) The Shiralee (1957) Dunkirk (1958) The Siege of Pinchgut (1959) The Scapegoat (1959) The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [First a Girl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_a_Girl) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_a_Girl?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.