Ronald Colman is a rich guy married to Anna Lee (who gets an 'introducing' credit after more than two dozen movie roles, including several leads). She has fallen in love with Gilbert Roland, and wants to marry him, which doesn't upset Colman at all, as he tells the tale of her having done the same thing with Reginald Gardiner a year earlier.
It's another movie that Colman starred in that was derived from a French one, and as usual, he does a fine job of it. I must object to anyone drawing any sort of equivalence between Roland and Gardiner; in the flashback, the latter threatens to kill himself if Miss Lee does not leave with him, and I was reminded of the line about Calvin Coolidge, and how they would tell the difference. Charles Winninger is wasted in the role of Miss Lee's father who is feuding with a bulldog. Mostly, though, director Lewis Milestone does not seem to be terribly interested in the goings-on; the pacing is far too leisurely, the comic interruptions lack snap, and everyone is far too polite. It is rote comedy.
And yet, I enjoyed this movie immensely. Despite the endless fascination of all the men with Miss Lee's nitwit, you have Ronald Colman pulled from the melancholy he exuded in all his movie roles of the 1930s. It's such a pleasure to see him having a good time, I am willing to forgive any weakness in the vehicle. I guess that's why he was a star.
It's another movie that Colman starred in that was derived from a French one, and as usual, he does a fine job of it. I must object to anyone drawing any sort of equivalence between Roland and Gardiner; in the flashback, the latter threatens to kill himself if Miss Lee does not leave with him, and I was reminded of the line about Calvin Coolidge, and how they would tell the difference. Charles Winninger is wasted in the role of Miss Lee's father who is feuding with a bulldog. Mostly, though, director Lewis Milestone does not seem to be terribly interested in the goings-on; the pacing is far too leisurely, the comic interruptions lack snap, and everyone is far too polite. It is rote comedy.
And yet, I enjoyed this movie immensely. Despite the endless fascination of all the men with Miss Lee's nitwit, you have Ronald Colman pulled from the melancholy he exuded in all his movie roles of the 1930s. It's such a pleasure to see him having a good time, I am willing to forgive any weakness in the vehicle. I guess that's why he was a star.