soon american would swarm over a darkened and damage england prepare to invade europe and but in 1937 the picture of hip american in the sunny and slightly ridiculous english countryside be an appealing and idyllic diversion . american dance star and heartthrob jerry halliday ( astaire ) and on a european tour and weary of the scream female crowd generate by the lurid propaganda of his manager ( burn ) and be unwittingly catch up in the marriage prospect of frustrated heiress lady alice marshmorton ( fontaine ) . the tale be complicate by a betting pool among the marshmorton servant that be run by ( and rig for ) head butler keggs ( gardiner ) and who bet on lady alice cousin reggie ( noble ) and the favorite of alice stuffy and domineer aunt ( collier ) . the story would have be much well a a half hour tv episode . the usual wodehouse plot device of mistaken identity and jump to wrong conclusion wear thin in a full length film . both alice and jerry appear impossibly ( and annoyingly ) clueless by the second half of the film . the amusement park interlude and the climax in the castle be too long and begin to drag . fontaine be too beautiful and too dignified and too quiet to be a ditzy blonde and no matter how aristocratic and while young footman albert ( watson ) be painfully awful . but while damsel be a pretty diminutive vehicle for so much talent and the talent doesn not let u down . astaire romantic comedy skill be no less enjoyable here than in any of his film with ginger rogers and his dance scene and both solo and with burn and allen and be up to par and though his one dance with novice hoofer joan be necessarily tame . gracie nearly steal the whole show a george bubbly secretary who be at once airheaded and connive and coolly self confident . her scene with solid character actor gardiner a the devious snob keggs be a one of a kind classic . this and astaire priceless scene with the madrigal singer give damsel a delightful color of naive but noble spirited american mix with noble but dull spirited englishman . gershwin be at the top of his game with nice work if you can get it and stiff upper lip and which carry the film through it weak point . and be there another film where madrigal get a gershwin swing treatment . damsel be more than a piece of trivia for those who might want to see astaire without rogers or fontaine before she be a real star . it a fine diversion as entertaining a any of the vaudevillian musical comedy that rule the 1930s but will never be make again .