Don Marshall (Ray Milland) is rich...really, really rich. And he's met a nice young lady, Irene (Anna Neagle) and wants to see her happy and successful. So, he buys a fancy fashion studio and gets her hired as one of their models...and she has no idea that Don is helping her not that he is 'Madame Lucy', the 'lady' who owns the shop! Soon, Irene goes from a poor working girl to the rage of society, as there is a mix up and folks think she's related to some rich O'Dare family back in Ireland. In the meantime, one of Don's friends, Bob (Alan Marshall) has also fallen for Irene. Who will end up with her at the end?This is a mildly enjoyable comedy-romance. Nothing stands out other than the acting, though the film is an enjoyable time-passer. Nice...but that's about it.

Based on a 1919 Broadway musical hit, and transferred reasonably faithfully to the screen, with much underscoring from the Harry Tierney-Joseph McCarthy original. But only three songs remain, leaving acres of unprepossessing light comedy about a shanty-Irish colleen who lucks into modeling and is courted by friendly rich boys Ray Milland and Alan Marshal. The plotting here goes far awry. Alan Marshal spends the whole movie lusting after Anna Neagle, only to declare in the last reel he really loves Marsha Hunt, only because the screenwriters are desperate to have Neagle end up with Milland. Some nice things happen: a whole reel in Technicolor, to show off Neagle's Alice Blue Gown, and one of Billie Burke's best society-flibbertigibbet turns, and Roland Young exuding wry bemusement. And Neagle has a lovely solo dance near the end, about absolutely nothing. But one does spend an awful lot of time wishing they'd get on with it, and wondering where the stage score went.

This is the film version of a play that premiered more than twenty years earlier (1919), and boy does the story show its age! The title character is so good-golly-gosh wholesome you'll either want to laugh or just haul off and smack her. This being my first introduction to Anna Naegle, I can only hope it was the character and not a limited acting range. She's the anti-femme-fatale, and that could not have been good for her career in the coming years in Hollywood.That being said, it's not such a bad little film with pros like Ray Milland and Billie Burke in the cast. The opening credits with marionettes flipping cue cards is cute, but it sets a more comedic tone than this film can deliver. I will say it is fun checking out the fashions of the era, not to mention the interior designs, and the story touches on class differences without the film really making any kind of statement about them. It may be a little too-cute for its own good, but it's worth a look if you're curious.

Anna Neagle was one of the United Kingdom's brightest musical stars. She and Jessie Matthews seem to just about corner the market on British musical comedy leading ladies. What films Neagle didn't do, Matthews did. However unlike Matthews, Neagle came over to try her luck on the other side of the pond. Irene was one of the ones she did her in a deal with RKO that also included her husband, producer/director Herbert Wilcox.Irene was a successful musical comedy that was updated from post World War I to pre World War II America. On Broadway it had a run of 675 performances during the 1919-1921 seasons. It concerns a young Irish working class girl who gets innocently trapped in a fashion store publicity stunt by Ray Milland who's smitten with her. Store manager Roland Young aids and abets.The film is makes the twenty year transition well. Most of the score is heard in the background or as show numbers. The two songs that Neagle does, Irene and Alice Blue Gown were the big hits of the original show. Irene is a pleasant enough film, it's too bad that the American movie public didn't see more of Anna Neagle.