THE GILDED LILY (1935)

Coming off her 1934 annus mirabilis (FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE; CLEOPATRA - DeMille; Capra’s Oscar-winning IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT; racially-charged melodrama in John M. Stahl’s IMITATION OF LIFE), Claudette Colbert found lower stakes choosing between ‘regular newsguy’ Fred MacMurray and identity-masked British Lord Ray Milland (his first Hollywood role of note). It starts off well, as Colbert & MacMurray, in the first of seven pairings, shoot the breeze of a Thursday evening; him seeing stars/her hoping for fireworks. An explosion that spontaneously occurs when she bumps into Ray Milland on a subway platform. But tru-love takes a detour when MacMurray, on a work assignment, spots Milland boarding a British-bound ship as the fancy English Lord in town incognito and Colbert, after she sees the story in print, assumes she’s been taken for a ride. And that’s when the film goes off the tracks as MacMurray plays up the busted relationship as a publicity gag with Colbert, the injured party, rechristened ‘The girl who said NO!.’ Milking this misunderstanding as meal ticket, MacMurray comes across as a real crumb bum, costing Colbert her job and setting her up for even more humiliation as a flash-in-the-pan nightclub celeb. Then the film tries to have it both ways, letting Colbert succeed thru honest lack of talent, along with another go at Milland before everybody figures things out. Worse, Milland is so darn young, handsome & charming, he comes off as the natural match for Colbert, who dazzles in Victor Milner’s lens. No doubt this played differently for audiences at the time, all these mid-range Colbert rom-coms were big hits. (In spite of, or because of faceless helmers like Wesley Ruggles?) But after the first act, this one now works mostly as ‘30s artifact.

DOUBLE-BILL: DeMille’s FOUR FRIGHTENED FRIENDS (with a deglamorized Colbert) is an odd duck of a film, but the other three from ‘34 are classics. OR: See Ben Hecht juggle similar elements to better effect in NOTHING SACRED with Carole Lombard & Fredric March. (Look for the restored edition from KINO. Many Public Domain dupes out there.)