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Monday, November 13, 2017

THE GOOSE AND THE GANDER (1935)

Charles Kenyon’s script (from his ‘original’ story) doesn’t sound too promising: Ex-Wife, overhearing Wife #2 plan an assignation with a new lover, tries to screw up all parties with a secret rendezvous of her own . . . with her Ex . . . at the same location! Oh dear, one of those ‘smart’ drawing room farces that stagger along between arch overacting & dopey misunderstandings. Worse, a comic mix-up brings in a ‘wrong’ couple, a misidentified pair of jewel robbers. Yikes! But wait! With skilled playing (Kay Francis, George Brent & Genevieve Tobin lightly skating on the surface); Kenyon’s cleanly parsed crisscross plotting; and Alfred E. Green’s unfussy megging (it helps that he’s unable to make much of things), the Pre-Code attitudes find their mark in a Post-Code film environment, coming across with spirit, elegance & fun. No undiscovered gem; but quite pleasant work from all hands. Good rainy day stuff.

DOUBLE-BILL: Kay Francis, Hollywood's ‘Queen of Decolletage,’ peaked @ Pre-Code Paramount. And that includes an early loan-out to Warners for William Dieterle’s Lubitsch-esque JEWEL THIEF (if only it had a third-act) made right before her pair of classics ONE WAY PASSAGE and TROUBLE IN PARADISE (all three 1932).

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