She couldn't Take It is a sluggish screwball displaying the fair comic talent of Joan Bennett and the bad timing of George Raft. It has a nice Paramount gloss but is vapid in comparison to the sharper play of Loy and Powell, Lombard and Barrymore.
The Van Dykes are the Kardashians of their time, tawdry upper crusts with media's nose up it's anus. Patriarch Daniel Van Dyke has had enough of his kids' and wife's front page shenanigans but ends up in prison doing time where he is befriended by mobster Mo Ricardi (Raft). When Dan Van Dyke is facing his maker in prison he appoints Ricardi the trustee of his vast fortune. Tough love ensues.
Bennet is a fine actress (Scarlet St.) but she is no Lombard in this and Raft looking sharper than anyone of his day about to sabotage his career is as stiff as four day road kill as the questionable Italian slur.
It is left up to a stalwart supporting guest of a touching Walter Connaly the birdbrained but always charming Billie Burke, a pompous ass thespian played by Alan Mowbray and tragicomic turn from Wallace Ford that is disturbing to screwball.
Tay Garnet's direction lags and the film trades along with with little to no comic or romantic punch. Stars that Bennet and Raft might be of the time She Couldn't Take It remains minor league screwball.
The Van Dykes are the Kardashians of their time, tawdry upper crusts with media's nose up it's anus. Patriarch Daniel Van Dyke has had enough of his kids' and wife's front page shenanigans but ends up in prison doing time where he is befriended by mobster Mo Ricardi (Raft). When Dan Van Dyke is facing his maker in prison he appoints Ricardi the trustee of his vast fortune. Tough love ensues.
Bennet is a fine actress (Scarlet St.) but she is no Lombard in this and Raft looking sharper than anyone of his day about to sabotage his career is as stiff as four day road kill as the questionable Italian slur.
It is left up to a stalwart supporting guest of a touching Walter Connaly the birdbrained but always charming Billie Burke, a pompous ass thespian played by Alan Mowbray and tragicomic turn from Wallace Ford that is disturbing to screwball.
Tay Garnet's direction lags and the film trades along with with little to no comic or romantic punch. Stars that Bennet and Raft might be of the time She Couldn't Take It remains minor league screwball.