In dueling productions on B’way, Leslie Howard had just gone head-to-head against John Gielgud in HAMLET (and lost), and in Hollywood against Norma Shearer in ROMEO AND JULIET (and lost), when he got a chance to send up Shakespeareans on and off-stage co-starring with Bette Davis as a battling theatrical couple. (Think ‘the Lunts’ whose constant bickering in TAMING OF THE SHREW on and off-stage led to Cole Porter’s KISS ME KATE.*) The gimmick here is super-fan Olivia de Havilland, engaged to Patrick Knowles, but carrying a torch for Howard that’s threatening both couples. Warners wasn’t exactly the studio for sophisticated continental comedy, you’re more likely to find sub-Ferenc Molnár confections @ Paramount. Yet how well this turned out! Funny & relaxed, with deft playing all ‘round, and hardly any pushing. (See next year’s BOY MEETS GIRL for a typical harsh & hasty Warners comedy.) Howard, not only hilarious & charming, but also getting to show some serious Shakespearean chops simply by not taking things too seriously. He & Davis as R&J, fighting sotto voce on-stage as they die; SHREW quotes over kippers at breakfast; tossing off a ‘7 Ages of Man’ as he packs. Just as good is Eric Blore, stealing all his scenes as Howard’s ultra-devoted valet. Disproving the idea that ‘no man’s a hero to his valet,’ Blore’s plainly in love with the guy. You’ll be too. And from ‘utility player’ helmer Archie Mayo who rarely got such congenial assignments over a long career.
DOUBLE-BILL: *While M-G-M’s KISS ME KATE/'53 is (ahem) uneven, most of the original B’way cast was captured to good effect in a reasonably complete 1958 tv abridgement.
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