When the leading lady (Madge Evans) must explain why she likes her suitor (Ralph Forbes)and must contrast that attitude with her feelings for Robert Montgomery, you know the film is in trouble. Montgomery can say there's "electricity" between himself and Evans, but that spark is not transmitted to celluloid. And that is too bad, because the film is wittier -- per Wodehouse -- and better-acted than many films of the era. But Evans' loves and likings must be verbalized. The energy is simply not on the screen, only in the script. She is beautiful, though. She needed a different character -- more remote, more mysterious, more fearful of love. And then, maybe... Blore is wonderful, and lights up every scene he is in, as the butler who knows his Shakespere better than the ham, Frank Morgan. But this is one of Morgan's best roles. His only triumph, apparently, was as Osric, in Cedar Rapids. Now Osric is the foppish courtier at the end of 'Hamlet' -- hardly the role of a lifetime. But Morgan disguises himself as "Count Osric of Denmark" in order to infiltrate the family of his beloved (Billy Burke) and turns his failure as actor into personal success. It is a neat touch. Burke's flighty flutiness is hardly used in the film, but she does have a funny line about remembering how painful youth was. The Morgan-Burke romance is intended as a foil for the Montgomery-Evans courtship and that would have worked well had the main plot had more chemistry.
Review of Piccadilly Jim
