While there's a lot of wit in this screenplay about the ups and downs of a marriage almost doomed from the start, there's really little story, and that makes this disappointing in the lists of 1930's screwball comedy. Barbara Stanwyck is a working girl who marries long-time beau Gene Raymond and at his request stops working. He thinks she's making ends meet, but in reality, she's receiving a ton of "overdue" bills and threats from the otherwise friendly Billy Gilbert to remove the rented furniture which finally occurs on New Year's Eve and brings the couple's problems to a head thanks to the interference of a drunken millionaire (Robert Young) who really has no purpose here than to provide some romantic misunderstandings in their marriage.
There's a lot of witty dialog between Raymond and Stanwyck's bickering next-door-neighbors, the cranky Ned Sparks and the sarcastic Helen Broderick. They provide most of the film's humor, and the funny thing about their long-married characters who pretend to hate each other is that you know that they'd never be able to live without each other. A very funny drunken scene occurs when Young arrives at Stanwyck's furniture-less apartment and proceeds to get himself, Stanwyck, Broderick and the still present Gilbert totally tanked with Gilbert sneezing the entire time and Broderick insisting "That's one gazuntight you owe me" every time he tries to sneeze but can't.
So while there's a lot to like in this sitcom like entry in the golden age of screwball comedy, there's really a lack of story and structure, even though everybody is on the top of their game. Toss in the always amusing Hattie McDaniel to throw in her two cents as a happy-go-lucky cook, and you've got a recipe for cake which unfortunately didn't rise because it was missing the flour.
There's a lot of witty dialog between Raymond and Stanwyck's bickering next-door-neighbors, the cranky Ned Sparks and the sarcastic Helen Broderick. They provide most of the film's humor, and the funny thing about their long-married characters who pretend to hate each other is that you know that they'd never be able to live without each other. A very funny drunken scene occurs when Young arrives at Stanwyck's furniture-less apartment and proceeds to get himself, Stanwyck, Broderick and the still present Gilbert totally tanked with Gilbert sneezing the entire time and Broderick insisting "That's one gazuntight you owe me" every time he tries to sneeze but can't.
So while there's a lot to like in this sitcom like entry in the golden age of screwball comedy, there's really a lack of story and structure, even though everybody is on the top of their game. Toss in the always amusing Hattie McDaniel to throw in her two cents as a happy-go-lucky cook, and you've got a recipe for cake which unfortunately didn't rise because it was missing the flour.