I MET HIM IN PARIS (1937)

Kay (Claudette Colbert) is a New York department store employee who is on her dream trip to Paris, alone without her pleasant but boring boyfriend (Lee Bowman), where she hopes to let loose and possibly disgrace herself. In the hotel bar, she asks for an English speaking waiter, who arrives saying, "You have the ask to wish for me your pleasure?" She meets two buddies, frivolous playboy Gene (Robert Young) and struggling playwright George (Melvyn Douglas), who squire her around the city. Gene falls for Kay, and George, knowing that Gene is married (though unhappily so), acts as their chaperone. When Kay suspects that George thinks she will give into Gene's advances, she insists that the three head off to a ski resort in Switzerland where she will prove that her relationship can stay platonic (so much for possibly disgracing herself). George has also fallen for Kay and he privately warns Gene to take it easy or he will spill the beans about Gene's marital status. They each get their own room and spend days indulging in various winter sports, but eventually George proclaims that he is in love with Kay and can't be a chaperone anymore. That's when Gene's wife (Mona Barrie) shows up; she's there to tell him that she has finally agreed to a divorce, but Kay, learning the truth and pissed off at both men, goes back to Paris alone where she finds her boyfriend had arrived, worrying that she will not remain faithful to him. Gene and George soon show up in Paris, and it looks like Kay is going to have to choose between a man who distrusts her, a man whom she cannot trust, and a man who broke his chaperone promise.

This is a fairly mild romantic comedy; it wants to be a legitimate screwball comedy but it's not paced quickly enough and occasionally seems rather labored. It feels at times like a squeaky-clean version of Noel Coward's DESIGN FOR LIVING. The dialogue is snappy: at one point, Douglas says to Bowman, "Drink your martini before I hit you over the head with it"; Douglas calls bobsledding "a pleasant form of suicide." The actors are fine, especially Douglas and Bowman, though I missed the spark of pro screwballers like Cary Grant or Irene Dunne. However, I quite enjoyed the location shooting at the ski resort (with Idaho standing in for Switzerland). It's effective to see the actors' breath in the cold and to see them do their own ice skating. The bobsled sequence is genuinely exciting; Colbert falls off her sled and has to be nimble to avoid being hit by the next sled. As with most screwballs, character motivations are often weak or downright silly—it's not clear why Douglas doesn't tell Colbert about Young's wife right away. The way the three stars are billed will tell you who Colbert winds up with, but I was kind of pushing for her to get back together with Bowman. Amusing and worth a viewing for fans of classic-era comedy. Pictured are Bowman, Young, Colbert and Douglas. [Criterion Channel]