Gordon is trying to get businessman Charles Forbes to invest in his costume jewelry business. His fiancée Dulcy knows the Forbeses and invites them (Forbes, his wife Eleanor, and their daughter Angela) to a weekend house party, intending to help Gordon finalize the deal. Also present: her brother Bill, a Hollywood screenwriter named Leach, and an eccentric golfing millionaire named Van Dyke. Leach has had a crush from afar on Angela and hopes to win her over, but Bill, who used to date her, has his own ideas about getting her back. The flighty Van Dyke flirts with Eleanor, grabbing her bottom whenever possible. There's also a new butler, Perkins, an ex-con with an accent, who may be tempted to steal a valuable necklace of Eleanor's. Dulcy tries hard to get Forbes to make Gordon a good business deal, but everything she does backfires. The next morning, all is a shambles: Forbes backs out the deal, Van Dyke makes a better offer that turns out to be an empty promise, the butler seems to have made off with the necklace, and Leach and Angela have eloped, leaving both Forbes and Bill angry. Is there any way Dulcy can save the weekend before breakfast?
This pre-Code early talkie, based on a George S. Kaufman play, is a screwball comedy before that term existed. For me, it was equal parts fun and torture. The plot is promising, overstuffed with odd characters and situations that collapse comically before our eyes. There are some very funny moments and lines. The heavily-accented butler is given instructions as to how to greet guests, and he repeats these out loud ("When they come in, I say…") when doing the greeting. Leach spends hours relating the plot of his new screenplay "Sin," a through-the-ages story that begins with Noah and ends with the line, "The weasel is dead!" At a card game, Dulcy prattles so much that Forbes is sure she talks in her sleep. But I found this 75-minute movie difficult to get through. One problem has to do with the technical aspects of early talkies. Though the camera does move about, the film is very stagy and unimaginatively shot. But the bigger problem is the acting. Marion Davies, quite popular in her day as a light comic actress, is someone I've never cared much for. She tries very hard here to be a loveable scatterbrain, but too often she put me in mind of Katherine Hepburn's character in Bringing Up Baby, a character I have always disliked. She delivers many malapropisms (for example, mixing up "exonerated" for "exiled") but they just don't sound natural coming from her. Elliot Nugent as Gordon is totally bland and I didn't care one bit if his business deal went through or not. Franklin Pangborn is amusing but ineffective as the screenwriter. His sissy stereotype was apparently in full effect this early in his career, and I did chuckle at his pronounced limp handshake with Bill. But I didn't believe for one moment that the young and vivacious Angela (Sally Starr, whom I quite liked) would go for him. The best performance is given by Raymond Hackett as Bill, the likeable layabout brother; sadly, he vanishes for large chunks of time. Ultimately, I liked the way everything came out in the end, but I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone except fans of Davies or of pre-Code comedy. (Forbes surprisingly comes out with a vigorous and clear line reading of, "I don’t give a damn about pictures!") Pictured at top left are Hackett and Davies; at right, Hackett and Nugent. [TCM]
This pre-Code early talkie, based on a George S. Kaufman play, is a screwball comedy before that term existed. For me, it was equal parts fun and torture. The plot is promising, overstuffed with odd characters and situations that collapse comically before our eyes. There are some very funny moments and lines. The heavily-accented butler is given instructions as to how to greet guests, and he repeats these out loud ("When they come in, I say…") when doing the greeting. Leach spends hours relating the plot of his new screenplay "Sin," a through-the-ages story that begins with Noah and ends with the line, "The weasel is dead!" At a card game, Dulcy prattles so much that Forbes is sure she talks in her sleep. But I found this 75-minute movie difficult to get through. One problem has to do with the technical aspects of early talkies. Though the camera does move about, the film is very stagy and unimaginatively shot. But the bigger problem is the acting. Marion Davies, quite popular in her day as a light comic actress, is someone I've never cared much for. She tries very hard here to be a loveable scatterbrain, but too often she put me in mind of Katherine Hepburn's character in Bringing Up Baby, a character I have always disliked. She delivers many malapropisms (for example, mixing up "exonerated" for "exiled") but they just don't sound natural coming from her. Elliot Nugent as Gordon is totally bland and I didn't care one bit if his business deal went through or not. Franklin Pangborn is amusing but ineffective as the screenwriter. His sissy stereotype was apparently in full effect this early in his career, and I did chuckle at his pronounced limp handshake with Bill. But I didn't believe for one moment that the young and vivacious Angela (Sally Starr, whom I quite liked) would go for him. The best performance is given by Raymond Hackett as Bill, the likeable layabout brother; sadly, he vanishes for large chunks of time. Ultimately, I liked the way everything came out in the end, but I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone except fans of Davies or of pre-Code comedy. (Forbes surprisingly comes out with a vigorous and clear line reading of, "I don’t give a damn about pictures!") Pictured at top left are Hackett and Davies; at right, Hackett and Nugent. [TCM]
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