Julie, Barbra and Liza all had musical film genius, but unfortunately, they came too late in the game. Julie managed a few years, while Barbra turned to comedy and Liza to concerts and Broadway to stay marketable, but other than Liza in "Cabaret", by the time this musical farce was made, musicals were really only for the gays and the grays. Fortunately, tides have turned, but for a while, it appeared that Julie was finished in film.
Realizing that the tides were turning in film themes, Julie wisely took on the opportunity to be a little more naughty. She was fun, but temperamental, as the real life stage legend Gertrude Lawrence in " Star!", and spoofs her goody goody image in this World War I spoof, playing a British singing star who is secretly (God forbid!) a spy for the Germans. But will love and jealousy for American pilot Rock Hudson change her tune? It's a friggin' Julie Andrews movie, so that answer is obvious!
Always ladylike even when showing off her boobies, Andrews gets to bare almost as much here. A gorgeous opening with the award winning song, "Whistling in the Dark", sets up her character, and she's soon calming down an audience with war standards. Julie sings more, and after a Disney like production number, "I'll Give You Three Guesses", is forced to burlesque it because of the raunchy act who might steal Hudson from her.
The flaws here are mainly some really dated comic stereotypes, reminding me of veteran European character actors such as Felix Bressart, Herman Bing and S.Z. Sakall, with one very close to the nefarious looking Conrad Veidt. Sometimes the farce is just too forced, like a man in a wheel chair suddenly flying by Julie as she finishes a song and two spies on the roof in the rain keeping an eye on Julie and Rock as they have a fight. Jeremy Brett has a few amusing moments as Julie's German contact, but as predicted, it gets a bit complicated and ends too smoothly. Director Blake Edwards needed to try a bit more subtlety, but for the most part, World War I films have generally been a hard sell.
Realizing that the tides were turning in film themes, Julie wisely took on the opportunity to be a little more naughty. She was fun, but temperamental, as the real life stage legend Gertrude Lawrence in " Star!", and spoofs her goody goody image in this World War I spoof, playing a British singing star who is secretly (God forbid!) a spy for the Germans. But will love and jealousy for American pilot Rock Hudson change her tune? It's a friggin' Julie Andrews movie, so that answer is obvious!
Always ladylike even when showing off her boobies, Andrews gets to bare almost as much here. A gorgeous opening with the award winning song, "Whistling in the Dark", sets up her character, and she's soon calming down an audience with war standards. Julie sings more, and after a Disney like production number, "I'll Give You Three Guesses", is forced to burlesque it because of the raunchy act who might steal Hudson from her.
The flaws here are mainly some really dated comic stereotypes, reminding me of veteran European character actors such as Felix Bressart, Herman Bing and S.Z. Sakall, with one very close to the nefarious looking Conrad Veidt. Sometimes the farce is just too forced, like a man in a wheel chair suddenly flying by Julie as she finishes a song and two spies on the roof in the rain keeping an eye on Julie and Rock as they have a fight. Jeremy Brett has a few amusing moments as Julie's German contact, but as predicted, it gets a bit complicated and ends too smoothly. Director Blake Edwards needed to try a bit more subtlety, but for the most part, World War I films have generally been a hard sell.