Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Richard Chatten The names of Adolphe Menjou and Pola Negri in the cast might lead you to expect the date of this film to be 1923 rather than 1943 (and the two did in fact make a couple of films together that year), but this is actually a relatively late screwball comedy with an on-form once-in-a-lifetime cast (although Denis O'Keefe rather strains credibility as Menjou's son).Billed third, Negri, who was then 46 and hadn't made a film in Hollywood for over ten years (her next and final film was Disney's 'The Moonspinners' twenty years later) actually has a relatively small role as Menjou's wife, but looks great (along with Martha Scott and Billie Burke she sweeps about in a succession of fabulous creations by Adrian) and one gets a rare chance to hear what she actually sounded like. We first meet her singing the Ride of the Valkyries, and Wagner - whose music one character says "had some beautiful moments but some ugly half hours" - is later the victim of a priceless sight gag. The best performance as usual is by Menjou, but right down to the bit players the cast all seem to be enjoying themselves (including veteran composer & musical director Richard Hageman unexpectedly playing the small part of a company director).The same year as he made the all-black musical 'Stormy Weather' the always surprising independent producer-director Andrew L. Stone here shows early evidence of the good naturedness and flair for organising complicated story lines that found full flower in his later thrillers; and this may be his only film to receive an Oscar nomination (for Phil Boutelje's score). Frederick Jackson's screenplay crackles with saucy throwaways and there are some sublime breaches of the fourth wall, including a couple of animated inserts by Friz Freleng.

jacobs-greenwood Andrew Stone produced, directed and wrote the story (which was adapted by Edmund Hartmann and Frederick Jackson) for this wartime screwball comedy featuring an Academy Award nominated Score by Phil Boutelje. Also notable is the appearance of Pola Negri in the cast; this was her first film in years and her last until her final role in The Moon-Spinners (1964). Adolphe Menjou, Martha Scott, Dennis O'Keefe, Billie Burke, Walter Kingsford, and Barton Hepburn play the other significant parts in the movie.The plot is pretty standard stuff for a screwball comedy: it relies on misunderstandings among some wealthy characters - like the always reliable ditz Burke - for its comic payoffs. Menjou plays his typical womanizer, even though he's married to Negri's character, an opera singer he'd charmed six months ago for her money. Paul Porcasi plays her impresario. Menjou's son Sonny (O'Keefe) is a chip off the old block, a sailor in the Navy with a girl in every port until he meets Martha Scott, who's playing a wealthy debutante that's Burke's daughter. O'Keefe's character insists that he's never been in love like this before, a line he uses several times with other women in the film's opening credits, which include cartoon character sequences, as does the film's final scene (of operatic composer Richard Wagner and his family at a picnic!).But as is often the case, Burke's character is really smarter than she looks or acts; she and Hepburn's character have schemed to test O'Keefe's love for her daughter Scott. Burke, a rich widow who socializes with a senator played by Kingsford, pretends to lose all her money to Hepburn, who's ostensibly interested in marrying Scott for himself, in order to see if O'Keefe still wants to marry her. Naturally, their love is stronger than such concerns but, with the prospect of having to support his would-be mother-in-law Burke, O'Keefe engages his "pretending to be wealthy" father Menjou, who's a somewhat impoverished kept man of Negri's, to solve this newly financial problem of his. Menjou's plan involves using a more powerful magnet at the 59 club's (owned by Georges Metaxa's character) crooked roulette table (operated by croupier Eddie Marr) to beat them at their own game. He gets assistance from a longtime associate who's currently the club's singer, June Havoc.There's another scam involving some phony gold mine stock (wasn't there any other type of enterprise that could be used in those days?) which inadvertently fools a real brokerage firm employee (Byron Foulger) and its owner (Richard Hageman). There's also a running joke whereby Lorraine Miller appears in almost every scene (walking her dog on the street, as a hatcheck girl, etc.), noticed by Menjou and eventually labeled a friend of this film's director by Burke. Several requisite false identity gags, who's married to whom etc., also transpire which, when combined with the aforementioned schemes, nearly prevent the newlyweds time from having any alone time. But thanks to the family's maid (Ellen Lowe), O'Keefe and Scott finally get some time to consummate their marriage before he has to ship off again.

cstotlar-1 This period in American movies saw such delights as "Hellzapoppin". Here the actors bring to attention that they are playing in a film. They make faces at the audience, wallpaper comes alive, there is a woman who keeps popping up in scenes where she isn't even acting. The dialog and the plot move lightning fast and there's no time at all to waste in this pleasant and often hilarious comedy. There's a wedding reception before the wedding, fortunes earned and lost in a space of minutes, a married couple disunited throughout. What's not to like? This film has been in public domain and has been copied, often badly and on stock of poor quality, so viewer beware...

hermes-13 This film is notable for the presence of Miss Pola Negri, a favorite actress of mine. She was better known for her early German silent films. I think this film is great fun and highly amusing. Good family entertainment