Lack of good storyline.

Great Film overall

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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.

Watching this delightful movie I was captivated by the beautiful Anna Neagle. While watching the early part of the movie and appreciating more and more the beauty of Miss Neagle, and the beautiful dresses she was modeling, I wished that this was a movie that they would convert to Technicolor. Lo and behold suddenly the movie becomes Technicolor and the vivid red hair and Alice blue gown come alive. Her graceful movements in the dancing and modeling are memorable. I have seen some comments that her dancing was not first class but I do not recall a more alluring dance than her solo dance on the patio near the movie's end. Unfortunately at this time the movie has reverted to black and white but this detracts little from the beautiful Anna. Of course the music is dated but this movie taken as a whole is a musical comedy classic.

Anna Neagle was never one of my favorites. She was one of those oh-so-ladylike actresses that you just couldn't picture doing things us mere mortals do every day without thinking. However, in the early 40's, the British actress was Americanized for three musical films based upon old Broadway shows. "Irene" was the first of the three (followed by remakes of "No No Nanette" and "Sunny"), and by far the most charming. As the oh-so-Irish Irene O'Dare, Neagle becomes a superstar overnight when she shows up at a Long Island party wearing an old gown of her grandmother's (that salty old favorite May Robson) that has eyes all aglow. Dashing Ray Milland and her dizzy mother (Billie Burke) are instantly taken with her, and she is soon a celebrity. They believe her to be related to European blue-bloods, not realizing she is a simple working girl. Only Milland and his business partner (Roland Young as "Madame Lucy", the apparent designer of the "Alice Blue Gown") know the truth.I was familiar with the score thanks to a recording of the 1973 revival with Debbie Reynolds; most of the songs are either cut or given minor arrangements, with the exception of "Alice Blue Gown" which is turned into a cute production number filled with a variety of different races wearing the outfit. Hattie Noel and the Dandridge sisters are given the bulk of the production number, while Neagle earlier sang it to her grandmother and sisters. Neagle's singing voice, while not bad, is no Jeanette MacDonald; It is hard to believe that she was one of Britain's most popular musical stars. Her acting, however, is pretty good, and she is most convincing as an Irish lass. Milland is handsome and quite charming; He is the perfect leading man. Billie Burke and Roland Young (reunited from the "Topper" series as well as several others) are good as well, and May Robson is always a delight. (The Broadway musical for those who are interested featured Monte Markham in the Milland role, and Ruth Warrick, Billy DeWolfe, and Patsy Kelly in the Burke, Young, and Robson roles respectively).RKO went all out for the production design of the film, giving it a marvelous art deco look. It is equal in design to any of the Astaire/Rogers musicals, and just as charming. The only thing I disliked was the lack of music; I wanted a production number of the rousing title song which gets more attention as background music than as a musical number. Still, as a comedy with music, "Irene" is very well done, and being taken from that point of view makes it a film worth viewing.

The music and dance of this musical comedy are well integrated with the story so I never got the feeling it stemmed from a 1919 show; the writers must have modified it considerably to avoid the "bursting-into-song" syndrome that was prevalent at the time, and which always bothers me. The actors are fun to watch, and some of the songs, headed by "Alice Blue Gown" are very memorable. I got a big kick out of the spoof of the Alice-Blue-Gown rage that was sweeping the country. It comes in the form of a movie called "Rex Gordon's Moviebone News" (a take-off on Movietone News, for those who are too young to know) which all the principals watch in a packed movie theater. In that film, we are treated with very heavy-set Hattie Noel in her Alice Blue Gown strutting her stuff, while other black actors and actresses, some in similar gowns, sing and dance. Three of the singers were The Dandridge Sisters, which included Dorothy Dandridge, a very pleasant surprise. The whole sequence was a pleasure to watch, despite the little screen time given to the Sisters.