Despite the setting, the story really focuses on two sisters--nice sister Julia (Jeanne Craine) and her B****y sister, Edith (Linda Darnell). When Aunt Zenia (Constance Bennett) arrives from France with her step-son, Philippe (Cornel Wilde), Julia falls for the guy. Seeing her sister is smitten, Edith decides to try to steal him away for herself. What follows are some mistakes where both Julia and Philippe assume the worst and you wonder if by the end of the film they'll end up together. Along for the ride are her parents (Walter Brennan and Dorothy Gish).
The film has quite a few songs--mostly which are pleasant and forgettable. But unlike the very similar "Meet Me in St. Louis", instead of one person doing most of the songs, everyone gets in on the act, though a few of them have weak voices. In fact, in many ways this is like Twentieth Century-Fox's answer to MGM's "Meet Me in St. Louis" (both coincide with a huge exhibition in town)...though in pretty much every way the Fox effort is inferior. I especially disliked Darnell's character--she was awful. In the other film, the family loved and cared about each other...and this was not the case with Edith. It's not a bad film but by comparison it suffers significantly. Enjoyable but nothing outstanding.
The film has quite a few songs--mostly which are pleasant and forgettable. But unlike the very similar "Meet Me in St. Louis", instead of one person doing most of the songs, everyone gets in on the act, though a few of them have weak voices. In fact, in many ways this is like Twentieth Century-Fox's answer to MGM's "Meet Me in St. Louis" (both coincide with a huge exhibition in town)...though in pretty much every way the Fox effort is inferior. I especially disliked Darnell's character--she was awful. In the other film, the family loved and cared about each other...and this was not the case with Edith. It's not a bad film but by comparison it suffers significantly. Enjoyable but nothing outstanding.