Smart, zippy, consistent fun, a first-rate comic B-pic from (of all studios) stuffy M-G-M, directed by (of all people) future ANDY HARDY specialist George B. Seitz. Overworked financial titan Lionel Atwill, under doctor’s orders for absolute quiet after a breakdown, goes off with pretty secretary Irene Hervey (and Hervey is very pretty!) to his secluded ranch for some serious R & R . . . and perhaps a bit of (unwelcomed) flirtation.* But neither rest nor l’amour sticks to schedule when bad weather forces a plane of politicos & reporters down on his private landing strip just after a pair of Bonnie & Clyde wannabes shows up, guns at the ready. Like some farcical take on the just released PETRIFIED FOREST (Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart), you’ll see the inspiration even if the characters don’t match up. Bernadene Hayes & Wallace Ford feast on their ex-vaudevillian/Bonnie & Clyde act. (Pity we don’t get a peek at their old stage routine.) Louis Hayward as a vain movie star and Stuart Erwin as a scoop-obsessed reporter also right on target. It’s small potatoes stuff, of course, but tasty.
DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, The surprisingly stiff, if flavorful PETRIFIED FOREST/’36. Now best for Davis. Bogie alarmingly stagy in his breakthru perf.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Though now best known for a pair of 2-strip TechniColor Horrors (DOCTOR X/’32; MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM/’33), did any actor move from A-pics to Bs, from the Majors to Poverty Row with the aplomb of Lionel Atwill? Nothing fazed him.
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