Tossed-off opposites-attract number might just as well been tossed in the circular file. The reissue title (see poster) gives the game up as yet one more IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT/’34 wannabe.* Nothing wrong there, and swapping out class conflict (heiress meets working stiff) for left/right politics (rebellious General’s daughter in sympathy & engaged to a Commie provocateur* winds on the lam with a patriotic soldier boy; see, they're both on the run because . . . oh, heck, who cares) could have worked. Clever producer Edward Small, who had a knack for spinning big films out of little budgets (THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO/’34), came up with real stars (Barbara Stanwyck, smirking her way thru the worst perf of her career; Robert Young, charmless as a tough egg gone AWOL), but second tier support (crucial in a rom-com) other than Cliff Edwards (that’s Jiminy Cricket to you) pleasantly warbling ‘I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now.’ ), but a brutally unfunny/sexist script and journeyman director Sidney Lanfield barely participating. Sad to see Stanwyck going thru the motions (whatever possessed her agent?) and pathetic to see Young’s supposed defense of traditional values reduced to, 'Well, I grew up believing in the flag' and so forth. Then solving all the problems with a big donnybrook at a ‘Red’ Rally where the former fiancé is exposed not for any ideas but for being in the county illegally. Only subfusc prints seem available, but hard to care much.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: *Assuming you haven’t seen it, Frank Capra’s IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT/’34, which must be one of the most influential films ever made, has aged gracefully, still delights.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Yet when this radical gets invited to dinner at the General’s home, he’s shows up in black tie. Really turned out, too, check out the stylish collar.
No comments:
Post a Comment