Such a frustrating disappointment

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I have only seen a couple of brief excerpts. The performance of the first act from Puccini's Madame Butterfly' was so amazing that I have been searching for the movie ever since. I imagine it is impossible to find. Over the years I have seen and heard many performances of "Butterfly" but there was something magical about this performance despite the grainy quality of the film.

Fun cast of characters, even if the plot is a smidge thin. Margaret Hamilton, of course, is the straight talking' maid, who talks back to everyone. Matronly Helen Westley is the guardian and agent for singer Elsa Terry (opera singer Grace Moore). Melvyn Douglas and Stuart Erwin claim to have a contract requiring Elsa to perform in Buenos Aires, but she she wants to go sing in Paris. I personally could have done without all the opera numbers, but this was 1937, and they still thought each film needed singing entertainment. The awesome Franklin Pangborn is in here, even if only for a line or two. This one DOES work as a comedy... lots of fun lines, double entendres, and banter. The only way to approach this is to go get a sandwich every time they perform the opera numbers; those long, yawners really bring things to a halt. Fun to watch, in spite of that. Directed by Ed Griffith. Sadly, Grace Moore would only make one more film after this... she died in a terrible plane crash in 1944.

By the time Grace Moore got around to doing I'll Take Romance for Columbia Pictures the mid thirties vogue for opera stars on the screen was fading. This was her last film under contract to Columbia and hereafter except for the French film Louise, Grace Moore concentrated on the grand opera, the concert stage, radio and commercial recordings. Until Mario Lanza came along, Grace Moore was the most popular selling classical artist on record.Maybe had the film been done by someone like Jean Arthur who was an expert in screwball comedy with Moore dubbing her voice, I'll Take Romance might have come out better. When she's not singing, Grace just can't get into the screwball spirit.It's certainly a screwball plot she has to deal with. Of course Grace is an opera singer who on a diva's whim decides she just doesn't feel like going to Buenos Aires to fulfill an engagement. Instead she wants to go to Paris.Melvyn Douglas supplies his well worn charm as he saunters through the role of the guy who has to get her to Argentina by hook or crook. Accent is definitely on the latter as he resorts to kidnapping her. But if you follow the screwball comedies of the Thirties I think you know where this one is going.As second leads and sidekicks to the leads, Margaret Hamilton and Stu Erwin are an interesting team. I can't recall any other film where Margaret was actually being romanced a bit herself even if it was by Stu Erwin.Besides the usual opera arias for Grace, she also got in the title song one of the staples of her concert repertoire. If this film is remembered at all today it's because of the Ben Oakland-Oscar Hammerstein II song, I'll Take Romance. To both see and hear Grace Moore perform the song makes the film worth seeing.

Predictable froth - but I loved it. Opera diva Grace Moore played Opera diva Elsa Terry who reneged on a performance date in Buenos Aires in favor of a more lucrative offer from Paris. Melvyn Douglas is sent in to win her back. He pretends to fall in love with Moore without revealing his true identity and then, guess what? He really does fall in love! But not before she catches on and is hurt. Of course, all's well in the end. Stuart Erwin and Margaret Hamilton (two years before her Wicked Witch days) are terrific as comedy relief sidekicks for the two leads. Moore performs some lovely arias in full costume including the gavotte from Manon. And the title tune is still running through my head. Screened at Cinefest in Syracuse New York.