Double Harness (1933)

Director:

John Cromwell

Writers:

Jane Murfin (screenplay)
Edward Poor Montgomery (play)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

The story of a temporary marriage

Plot:

A woman (Harding) tricks a playboy (Powell) into marrying her and then tries to make him legitimately fall in love with her. |

Plot Keywords:

Love | Playboy | Snitch | Debt | Businessman

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 17

7:45 AM

TCM

Cast

Ann Harding	...	Joan Colby
William Powell	...	John Fletcher
Lucile Browne	...	Valerie Colby
Henry Stephenson	...	Colonel Sam Colby
Lilian Bond	...	Monica Page
George Meeker	...	Dennis Moore
Reginald Owen	...	Freeman
Kay Hammond	...	Eleanor Weston
Leigh Allen	...	Leonard Weston
Hugh Huntley	...	Farley Drake
Wallis Clark	...	Postmaster-General Oliver Lane
Fred Santley	...	Bruno - the Couturiere (as Fredric Santley)

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1487-R: 11 September 1935 for re-release) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

This film hadn't been shown for decades and was found in a Merian C. Cooper collection which had been used for television. A two-and-half minute sequence that had been cut from the print was located in a French negative discovered in the National Center for Cinematography in France and restored to the print. The brief segment had been cut for television because it indicated that the characters of "Joan Colby" and "John Fletcher" were having pre-marital sex.

Quotes:

Valerie Colby: But how can you even think of marrying him if you don't love him?
Joan Colby: Love? Marriage has nothing to do with love. Marriage is a business - at least, it's a woman's business. And love is an emotion. A man doesn't let emotion interfere with *his* business, and if more women would learn not to let emotion interfere with *theirs*, fewer of them would end up in the divorce court.

Soundtrack:

Aloha Oe

Her Marriage Theory

Melodramatic romance about Joan (played by Ann Harding), a woman who strongly believes that marriage is "a business" and decides that a playboy of her acquaintance, John Fletcher (William Powell), a man with a "future" (not to mention a well-trained manservant) is the one for her. She actually falls in love with him, in spite of herself, but he's all playboy and doesn't seem to want to give up the bachelor life. She decides to trick him into marriage by going to his apartment, then changing into "something cooler", after which her father shows up, and for some reason Fletcher agrees to marriage. Well, they're already discussing divorce on the honeymoon and decide to wait six months before they get it. Joan is meanwhile busy pressing her husband to work on making his business a success and give up the polo (even though he's not very ambitious and has stated he prefers the life of leisure).

Well, this is an interesting, fairly serious film that stands out based on very well done performances by Ann Harding and William Powell. The flaw for me in the film is that I find the male character to be kind of a jerk and can't really see why she's so gung-ho to want this man - personally, I would take a decent, nice guy any day over a wealthy playboy who's always chasing after other women. In general, I would say this woman has been making some pretty poor choices in her life. But one bonus - the film is loaded with gorgeous dresses on all the women, a nice look at some fashions of the day. A decent film, worth seeing.