This movie, a warmup for Stanwyck and Fonda for the later The Lady Eve, is entirely enjoyable. A lighthearted piece of fluff, true, but everybody is having such a good time that it becomes totally infectious. Stanwyck, a rich deb, while walking her dogs in the middle of night, stumbles over a murdered man who disappears when she summons the police, of course. Fonda, a news editor/reporter, castigates her in print, and she threatens to sue. They, in the time-honored tradition of Hollywood comedy/mysteries, jointly, and sometimes separately and at loggers head, try to solve the mystery and find the murderer. Stanwyck is aided by a cohort of fellow debutantes, who do things helter-skelter en masse. The scene when Stanwyck sics 'em on Fonda ("Get him, girls"), with Fonda crawfishing as they advance, alone is worth the price of admission, as is the final avowal of love and proposal of marriage.
Reviews
4 Reviews
The Good Fairy
(1935)
A little gem undeservedly forgotten
21 December 2001
The story of a naif who goes out into the world, skirts calamity (i.e. seduction, in the guise of Frank Morgan, no less), and finds true love (Herbert Marshall, who likewise should be better remembered--he'd a been a bigger star if he would have been five years younger when the talkies started in earnest). Of course, Sullavan the naif is the one who instructs the world weary cosmopolitans rather than vice-versi.
The script, being by Preston Sturges, is funny and witty and artfully plotted. Sullavan was a great actress/star of the '30's early '40's who unfortunately is mostly forgotten now. She has a quality, a sly subtle acidity that makes her different from other screwball heroines. She also had the knack of bringing out the tenderness in her male leads (James Stewart was never more suave, articulate, and keenly perceptive than opposite the funny cruel little egomaniac Sullavan in The Shop Around the Corner, which is a masterpiece, and she brought out the early best in her former husband, Henry Fonda, in The Moon's Our Home, which is another forgotten little gem). It's not so much she's vicious a la Bette Davis or the divine Barbara Stanwyck: she's too minutely picky, petty really in getting what she wants, too self-centeredly rational in getting her way for that. But, anyway, The Good Fairy has a younger softer Sullavan. The supporting cast is superior, too.
The script, being by Preston Sturges, is funny and witty and artfully plotted. Sullavan was a great actress/star of the '30's early '40's who unfortunately is mostly forgotten now. She has a quality, a sly subtle acidity that makes her different from other screwball heroines. She also had the knack of bringing out the tenderness in her male leads (James Stewart was never more suave, articulate, and keenly perceptive than opposite the funny cruel little egomaniac Sullavan in The Shop Around the Corner, which is a masterpiece, and she brought out the early best in her former husband, Henry Fonda, in The Moon's Our Home, which is another forgotten little gem). It's not so much she's vicious a la Bette Davis or the divine Barbara Stanwyck: she's too minutely picky, petty really in getting what she wants, too self-centeredly rational in getting her way for that. But, anyway, The Good Fairy has a younger softer Sullavan. The supporting cast is superior, too.
Arsenic and Old Lace
(1944)
Not Up to Grant's and Capra's High Standards
24 September 2000
A good comedy, but not a great one. The material does not really suit Capra, and Grant is too frenetic, too over the top. The director should of had him tone it down a little. Nevertheless, there are many good things about this movie. The conception--the idea is great--although it is treated much too cute, and the old ladies, Massey and Lorre, are all pretty wonderful.
The More the Merrier
(1943)
Screwball Masterpiece.
28 March 1999
One of the greatest romantic comedies ever. The main characters are funny and likable (Joel McCrea is one of the forgotten great romantic comedy leading men of the '30's and '40's), the dialogue is wonderful, and the sense of the period is exact. Two great scenes: 1) McCrea and Arthur on the steps of her apt., he groping her, she fending him off without turning him off--hilarious and sexy; 2) At a factory, a long, long line of women workers is clocking out of work, a male worker (apparently there weren't many) walks toward them, becoming more apprehensive and walking faster as he runs the gauntlet of the women's hoots and hollers (talk about turning the tables)--no revisionism needed here, a primary source for the depiction of the burgeoning of feminism during WWII.
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