If you think this film is funny, you need to see the earlier, 1931 version, Man in Possession, starring Robert Montgomery. Made before the Hays Code, it is full of sexual tension and double entendre.
Personal Property, even with its great cast, is a pale imitation. It preserves the characters (and even adds a couple), but most of the innuendo has been written out of the dialog, and a couple of very steamy scenes have been deleted. The earlier version is a spicy, sexy bedroom comedy of errors. This remake, on the other hand, is bland drawing room comedy with slapstick elements.
The character, Arthur Trevelyan, transforms Personal Property into a farce - very nearly a "live" cartoon. If even one out of every three words he spoke were intelligible, Trevy might be funny. The fact that not a single word is understandable is bizarre. Even as a caricature of upper-crust British society, he is more puzzling than funny. In the context of the film, surrounded by the other perfectly understandable characters, he seems totally out of place - as if he wandered in from the Merry Melodies cartoon before the feature film!
Remaking a 1931 sex comedy in 1937 after the enforcement of the Hays Code results in a completely neutered film. And Trevy is the fire hydrant for this poor dog!
Personal Property, even with its great cast, is a pale imitation. It preserves the characters (and even adds a couple), but most of the innuendo has been written out of the dialog, and a couple of very steamy scenes have been deleted. The earlier version is a spicy, sexy bedroom comedy of errors. This remake, on the other hand, is bland drawing room comedy with slapstick elements.
The character, Arthur Trevelyan, transforms Personal Property into a farce - very nearly a "live" cartoon. If even one out of every three words he spoke were intelligible, Trevy might be funny. The fact that not a single word is understandable is bizarre. Even as a caricature of upper-crust British society, he is more puzzling than funny. In the context of the film, surrounded by the other perfectly understandable characters, he seems totally out of place - as if he wandered in from the Merry Melodies cartoon before the feature film!
Remaking a 1931 sex comedy in 1937 after the enforcement of the Hays Code results in a completely neutered film. And Trevy is the fire hydrant for this poor dog!