This is a pretty embarrassing failure. An attempt to make a Hollywood style romantic comedy in England. Tom Walls made this picture himself starring himself as a man totally irresistible to women - hmm?
Half way through I had to google this to confirm that it was indeed meant to be a comedy - you'd never guess. I'm a big fan of 1930s English comedies but this one is awful.
They hired space at Korda's studio to make this so it does actually look really good and professional but that's about all you can say about this which is positive. Tom Wall was a very funny character actor who had been in some very funny, very silly farces. He was marvellous in those but as a 'serious' actor albeit in an alleged comedy, he was as atrocious as he was a director.
He also looks about a hundred years old and yet he's meant to be God's gift to women. The word delusional springs to mind. Betty Stockfeld and Diana Churchill who are besotted with his dazzling good looks are just as unbelievable. Cecil Parker does his typical one dimensional upper crust caricature and Eugene Pallette, straight after filming MY MAN GODFREY clearly must have been kidnapped and forced to do this. His presence doesn't enhance it (especially with Tom Wall's flaccid direction) but makes you think how much better this would have been had it been made by a Hollywood studio or even here by Gaumont-British or Korda.
Some old films deserve to be lost films.
Half way through I had to google this to confirm that it was indeed meant to be a comedy - you'd never guess. I'm a big fan of 1930s English comedies but this one is awful.
They hired space at Korda's studio to make this so it does actually look really good and professional but that's about all you can say about this which is positive. Tom Wall was a very funny character actor who had been in some very funny, very silly farces. He was marvellous in those but as a 'serious' actor albeit in an alleged comedy, he was as atrocious as he was a director.
He also looks about a hundred years old and yet he's meant to be God's gift to women. The word delusional springs to mind. Betty Stockfeld and Diana Churchill who are besotted with his dazzling good looks are just as unbelievable. Cecil Parker does his typical one dimensional upper crust caricature and Eugene Pallette, straight after filming MY MAN GODFREY clearly must have been kidnapped and forced to do this. His presence doesn't enhance it (especially with Tom Wall's flaccid direction) but makes you think how much better this would have been had it been made by a Hollywood studio or even here by Gaumont-British or Korda.
Some old films deserve to be lost films.