Over five films (‘33 to ‘35), Warner Brothers tried to make a comedy team out of fondly remembered Joan Blondell and barely remembered Glenda Farrell. It didn’t take, but at least this little programmer doesn’t push as hard as Warners was wont to. Then again, not really much to push in this story of gold-digging Kansas City manicurists, trimming cuticles and mugs before they scadadle out of town, training to NYC before they’re whisked off to Paris along with a boatload of millionaire possibilities. Viva la France! Robert Armstrong’s the besotted/mob-connected operator wooing Blondell with a diamond engagement ring (swiped by his own BFF); Hugh Herbert a money-bags at sea for Farrell to make waves at. The film briefly threatens to come alive when the gals hide in plain sight with a large group under stolen scout uniforms and run away from jobs, cops and butter-and-egg men. A gender swapped SOME LIKE IT HOT?* Don’t get your hopes up. The idea dropped before we even hit the gangplank.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Also echoes of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES in the NYC-to-Paris fortune hunt. Filmed as a silent in 1928 with a pair of blondes (Alice White; Ruth Taylor) twenty-five years before blonde Marilyn Monroe and brunette Jane Russell made the musical.
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