It must have sounded like a cute idea--a cabal of Washington wives turns out to be the real power brokers who decide the Presidential nominee. But in practice it is very tame and dull. One keeps waiting for the zingers but in fact the wisecracks are mild and, for the most part, not very funny. Louise Fazenda, as the leader of 5 million obviously Republican clubwomen, is less a caricature of a dim, prissy, provincial battleaxe than simply a depressing reproduction of the real thing. And though the film ridicules her to the audience, she is never embarrassed, much less humiliated, to the other characters.
This tameness pervades the movie, which never even mentions the two main parties, and which reduces the horse-trading and viciousness of arriving at a candidate to one stuffy after-dinner chat, as unbelievable as it is boring. Walter Connolly, whom no one would take seriously, is miscast as the awful candidate--the part needed someone with a resonant voice and an authoritative, if pompous, manner. It's nice to see Verree Teasdale (Mrs. Adolphe Menjou) in a part of some size, but she is called upon only to be exasperated or icily condescending, and is not very funny in either mood.
Kay Francis, the movie's greatest clothes horse and a sparkling comic actress, is the only reason to see this, but she, too, has to fight the sluggish dialogue to keep her character merry and afloat.
This tameness pervades the movie, which never even mentions the two main parties, and which reduces the horse-trading and viciousness of arriving at a candidate to one stuffy after-dinner chat, as unbelievable as it is boring. Walter Connolly, whom no one would take seriously, is miscast as the awful candidate--the part needed someone with a resonant voice and an authoritative, if pompous, manner. It's nice to see Verree Teasdale (Mrs. Adolphe Menjou) in a part of some size, but she is called upon only to be exasperated or icily condescending, and is not very funny in either mood.
Kay Francis, the movie's greatest clothes horse and a sparkling comic actress, is the only reason to see this, but she, too, has to fight the sluggish dialogue to keep her character merry and afloat.