Cary Grant's film debut (which I now watched on the 110th anniversary of his birth) is hardly ever discussed but, recently, a fellow American movie-buff friend of mine rated it a startling ***1/2 (for the record, Leonard Maltin accords it a more modest **1/2 in his guide) and I also found it listed in the "Wonders In The Dark" website's poll of the "All- Time Top 3000 Movies"!
A very typical "frothy" Paramount effort from this era, and one that obviously apes the famed Lubitsch touch then in full force (even going so far as to borrow two of his alumni for the male leads, namely Charlie Ruggles and Roland Young). Grant is a singing javelin-thrower(!) married to Thelma Todd (who is constantly getting her clothes caught in doors and torn clean off her!); the latter has a fling with bachelor Young (this emanates from an era where the audience did not question the considerable age difference in a relationship – but, then, an older Grant would often be guilty of that as well!) and, when caught by Grant, pal Ruggles invents a wife for Young which Grant then asks to meet! They all end up on vacation in Venice (also partly the setting of Lubitsch's masterpiece TROUBLE IN PARADISE, made the same year and also featuring Ruggles!) with down-on-her-luck actress Lily Damita filling the part of devoted spouse to Young.
While the woman's supposed charms did not brush off on me (this is the first I have ever seen of her), the same cannot be said of her co-stars, all of whom vie for her attentions at some point or another – or, for that matter, the likes of Michael Curtiz and Errol Flynn who would make her their wife in real life (though both marriages ended in divorce)! Anyway, while the film definitely has a style and sophistication to it (not entirely typical of director Tuttle, whose forte would eventually be hard-boiled thrillers), the intermittent songs – another shameless borrowing from Lubitsch (not to mention Rene' Clair) – do come off as forced and a regrettable intrusion! The situations, while hardly inspired, are mostly engaging and the whole offers an entertaining ride despite finding all concerned not quite in their best form. Here, too, the use (or, should I say, misuse) of Italian comes into play – especially when Ruggles tries to leave Damita's room via a ladder on the point of being removed by a couple of local policemen and, consequently, falls into the canal below and is taken by the representatives of the law for a burglar, Grant, however, intercedes and, when he tells them Ruggles is actually the lady's lover, the two "guardie" burst into a litany of pardons (love, apparently, does conquer all) – which causes Ruggles to subsequently dub them "the 'Scusi' brothers"!
A very typical "frothy" Paramount effort from this era, and one that obviously apes the famed Lubitsch touch then in full force (even going so far as to borrow two of his alumni for the male leads, namely Charlie Ruggles and Roland Young). Grant is a singing javelin-thrower(!) married to Thelma Todd (who is constantly getting her clothes caught in doors and torn clean off her!); the latter has a fling with bachelor Young (this emanates from an era where the audience did not question the considerable age difference in a relationship – but, then, an older Grant would often be guilty of that as well!) and, when caught by Grant, pal Ruggles invents a wife for Young which Grant then asks to meet! They all end up on vacation in Venice (also partly the setting of Lubitsch's masterpiece TROUBLE IN PARADISE, made the same year and also featuring Ruggles!) with down-on-her-luck actress Lily Damita filling the part of devoted spouse to Young.
While the woman's supposed charms did not brush off on me (this is the first I have ever seen of her), the same cannot be said of her co-stars, all of whom vie for her attentions at some point or another – or, for that matter, the likes of Michael Curtiz and Errol Flynn who would make her their wife in real life (though both marriages ended in divorce)! Anyway, while the film definitely has a style and sophistication to it (not entirely typical of director Tuttle, whose forte would eventually be hard-boiled thrillers), the intermittent songs – another shameless borrowing from Lubitsch (not to mention Rene' Clair) – do come off as forced and a regrettable intrusion! The situations, while hardly inspired, are mostly engaging and the whole offers an entertaining ride despite finding all concerned not quite in their best form. Here, too, the use (or, should I say, misuse) of Italian comes into play – especially when Ruggles tries to leave Damita's room via a ladder on the point of being removed by a couple of local policemen and, consequently, falls into the canal below and is taken by the representatives of the law for a burglar, Grant, however, intercedes and, when he tells them Ruggles is actually the lady's lover, the two "guardie" burst into a litany of pardons (love, apparently, does conquer all) – which causes Ruggles to subsequently dub them "the 'Scusi' brothers"!