Adapted from, and probably not that different from, a Rachel Crothers stage play of the previous season, this marital trifle wants to be a sophisticated comedy, but isn't that comedic and isn't that sophisticated. The tale of a writer (Loy) pursued by a playboy (Montgomery) but having an affair with her publisher (Morgan) in front of his wife (Harding)'s eyes, it's agreeably pre-Code in that there's much unapologetic drinking and much fairly frank discussion of adultery, but the jokes are mostly variations on somebody's-in-bed-with-somebody-they-shouldn't-be-in-bed-with, and Alice Brady, as the ditsy socialite meddling in everybody's affairs, is one-note, the same note she plied in many similar performances. We're supposed to root for Montgomery, but he's rather smirky, and Loy, while beautiful and accomplished, is a little hard to believe as having the wit and thoughtfulness to pen one bestseller after another. Harding's intelligent and feminine, as always, but she's played this part before and isn't adding anything new to it. It's stagy and static (and where, oh where, did they get the idea that that's what a Lower East Side apartment would look like?), and the ending's unsatisfyingly ambiguous--so, do they end up together or don't they? Not that one cares much.
Review of When Ladies Meet
