Back in the 1930s, studios loved trying out opera stars in movies. Opera stars Lawrence Tibbett made several films (including one with Laurel & Hardy), Grace Moore just a few more and Lily Pons made four appearances in films. The only really successful movie star/opera singers were Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy...but there is a reason. They were primarily actors and then singers....whereas Tibbett, Moore and Pons were first and foremost singers. Nowadays, you look at many of these opera star features and you wonder....how could audiences of the day enjoy these pictures? After all, the average person was NOT an opera fan...and, in hindsight, they really didn't as Moore's nine films was the most that these three opera stars made. Annette is a sheltered girl and has seen nothing of the world. So, one night she sneaks out of her house and encounters a stranger in a cute meet up. Johnny (Henry Fonda) is a bohemian who has bounced about Europe and has no intentions of settling down...yet the morning after they meet he awakens to find they are married. He has no idea that his wife is a world class singer and he think his key to success is his musical compositions. Eventually, his ego is bruised as he sees his wife being showered with praise and his compositions aren't attracting any attention at all.I am no opera expert. However, Pons' very high pitched singing and speaking voice were NOT easy on the ears...and might explain her very short film career. She tries very hard...but I honestly cannot recall a woman speaking THIS high pitched in a movie and it was a bit painful. Overall, an odd curio but not much more. Fans of Henry Fonda will probably enjoy him but the film isn't particularly good...like most of the opera films.

"I Dream Too Much," nicknamed "I Scream Too Much," is a 1935 film starring opera singer Lily Pons and Henry Fonda, who at this point in his life resembled Jane Fonda in a man's haircut. He was really at the height of his most adorable-ness. Fonda plays a composer named Johnny Street who marries a young woman, Annette, only to discover that she has an operatic voice. In attempting to push his opera, she sings some of it for the head of the opera company in Paris. He makes her a huge star and Johnny is stuck on the sidelines. When he finds out that she is paying for a production of his opera, he leaves her.This is a slight story no doubt prompted by the success of Jeanette MacDonald and Grace Moore that relies on the voice and personality of Lily Pons and the cuteness of Fonda. Eric Blore plays a neighbor who has a trained seal; he's there for comic relief, and he was always funny.Pons was a huge opera star who actually sang for the last time in 1972, when she was 74 years of age! She was tiny at a time when opera stars ran very big, she was very glamorous, and her timing was impeccable - she arrived in America during the Depression and saved the Metropolitan Opera from bankruptcy. Her signature aria was the Bell Song from Lakme, an opera done infrequently today if at all. In it, she wore a bare midriff costume and showed off her F above high C and her coloratura technique. She was an ideal Rosina, Gilda, Lucia, Linda di Chamonix, etc. Women singers in those days were trained a little differently than they are today, with back placement of the high notes. Pons' middle voice and extension above high C were lovely, but the notes from F to high C had a shrillness to them, at least in recording. Her speaking voice records shrilly as well.This is actually a sweet film that the actors make enjoyable. I could have done without the long, dragging number at the end, but it's a chance to see one of opera's legends and a very young Fonda.

Oh goody - Yet another movie wherein the husband feels threatened by his wife's talent, and can't deal with the blow to his ego when her career is more successful and she makes more money than he does. I really don't enjoy these kinds of stories. Inevitably the wife gives up her career to have babies and support her hubby's dreams.What I don't understand is, why can't Fonda and Pons' characters work TOGETHER and live as equals, each contributing to their income? After all, their skills complement each other, he being a composer, and she a singer. But no, after helping to make his show a hit, the little woman must retire and sing nothing but lullabies for their kids. Guess his fragile little ego can't stand to share the spotlight. Sigh.If you can stand the sexism, this film has some pleasant songs and fairly humorous moments - Fonda's drunk scenes, for instance. And I just love the part where he regrets marrying Pons the morning after, tells her that she's too skinny and he'll probably beat her, but relents when he discovers what a good cook she is. Haw! Now *that's* comedy! Um, yeah. There's just no escaping the sexism, is there?There's really not much to recommend about this film except the always amusing Eric Blore, delightful in his too-few scenes. He talks to a seal, he talks about a seal, he refuses to serve drinks as a waiter - it's all good. Lily Pons isn't the best actress - very limited range of facial expressions. But her vocal range was anything but limited ...apparently she could reach high *F*. Yowza. Coincidentally, that's just about the grade I'd give this movie. Nah, I'd give it a high C.

Because of Lily Pons' high soprano, this film was rudely nicknamed "I Scream Too Much." Actually, Pons had a lovely light voice with a girlish sound; her singing didn't sound like screaming. In spite of my love of serious music, I have to laugh at the nickname.Henry Fonda and Lily Pons? OK. Today, combining a young male romantic lead with an opera singer seems strange. In the mid 20th Century, classical music wasn't viewed suspiciously by most people, as it is now. No rock, rap, or hip hop yet (now THAT's what I call screaming).I hope this film will become available on DVD or tape - it's been years since I've seen it.