HARD TO GET (1938)

A delightful little comedy featuring Olivia de Havilland just before she hit it big in GONE WITH THE WIND. Dick Powell plays a frustrated architect, working at a gas station, who has a run-in with de Havilland, a flighty heiress who stops by for gas but has no money on her. He makes her work off her debt, which humiliates her. She vows to get even, so she feigns interest in him and his grandiose plans for a chain of "auto courts," intending to crush his dreams. Of course, they fall in love for real and a happy ending is had by all. Both the leads are good, but a strong supporting cast is also present. Charles Winninger is de Havilland's rich father; Melville Cooper is his butler who spends most of his time playing games and wrestling with Winninger; Bonita Granville is the little sister; Allen Jenkins is Powell's buddy. Penny Singleton, the future "Blondie" of the movies, has a small but juicy part as a maid who poses as de Havilland, with de Havilland posing as the maid, during an amusing dinner scene. Also with John Ridgely and Grady Sutton. It has a screwball feel to it, and also has a couple of songs, including "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby." Worth catching. [TCM]

THE BISHOP MISBEHAVES (1935)

A jaunty comic thriller from, I assume, the MGM British unit. Edmund Gwenn is the title bishop, a big fan of mystery novels, who gets caught up in a real-life adventure involving blackmail, stolen jewels, and a variety of thugs. Maureen O'Sullivan has been wronged by Reginald Owen, so with the help of her American boyfriend (Norman Foster, director of several Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan movies), she conspires to steal some jewels and incriminating papers from Owen. Things don't go smoothly, however, and when Gwenn and his sister (Lucile Watson) stumble into the middle of things, Gwenn, acting out of a schoolboyish desire for adventure, gets involved. It's all very light, even when guns get waved around; the first half is quite fun, but it gets a bit bogged down later with lots of chases and double-crosses. Gwenn and Watson are very good, and Owen is at his blustery, befuddled best. [TCM]