A lonely socialite (Merle Oberon) is sent by her presidential hopeful father (Henry Kolker) to Palm Springs to avoid scandal after she's discovered in an illegal gambling joint. The spunky deb convinces her maids (Patsy Kelly and Mabel Todd) to set her up on a blind date with a cowboy (who turns out to be Gary Cooper) from a local rodeo and falls in love with him. But there's all sorts of bumps in this road to love, and it will take some fixin' for it to prevail.
This totally charming comedy is a nice chance to see the usually ladylike Oberon do some pratfalls and she does so nicely without loosing her class. What could be silly is handled with a romantic script that makes the pairing believable. This has one of the great supporting casts, although it is predictable that the less than glamorous comic supporting actresses will end up with the scraggly character actors (Fuzzy Knight and Walter Brennan) while beauty Oberon gets hunky Cooper.
Emma Dunn is adorable as Cooper's surrogate mother, "Ma Hawkins". There's a nice recurring gag between the two that is affectionate and endearing. Harry Davenport is hysterically funny as Oberon's lovable uncle, her biggest supporter who tries desperately to wake his one-sided brother (Kolker) up to Oberon's needs over his own, yet isn't afraid to perform a lively jitterbug. This is one of the rare cases of opposites attracting on screen that really works, even though Oberon's sophistication betrays her supposed job as a ladies' maid. Still, she's very funny in dealing with such poor man's items as a collapsing cot and sticky fly paper.
While most of the film is charming and light-hearted, it does turn into Capra-like corn as Cooper confronts the snobby associates of Oberon's father with a list of what the country really needs. This scene is totally faithful to the plot of the film and gives the story some substance in addition to amusement.
This totally charming comedy is a nice chance to see the usually ladylike Oberon do some pratfalls and she does so nicely without loosing her class. What could be silly is handled with a romantic script that makes the pairing believable. This has one of the great supporting casts, although it is predictable that the less than glamorous comic supporting actresses will end up with the scraggly character actors (Fuzzy Knight and Walter Brennan) while beauty Oberon gets hunky Cooper.
Emma Dunn is adorable as Cooper's surrogate mother, "Ma Hawkins". There's a nice recurring gag between the two that is affectionate and endearing. Harry Davenport is hysterically funny as Oberon's lovable uncle, her biggest supporter who tries desperately to wake his one-sided brother (Kolker) up to Oberon's needs over his own, yet isn't afraid to perform a lively jitterbug. This is one of the rare cases of opposites attracting on screen that really works, even though Oberon's sophistication betrays her supposed job as a ladies' maid. Still, she's very funny in dealing with such poor man's items as a collapsing cot and sticky fly paper.
While most of the film is charming and light-hearted, it does turn into Capra-like corn as Cooper confronts the snobby associates of Oberon's father with a list of what the country really needs. This scene is totally faithful to the plot of the film and gives the story some substance in addition to amusement.