Why so much hype?
Too many fans seem to be blown away
Memorable, crazy movie
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
View MoreYes, this movie is a bore. And I say that as a movie fan who almost always enjoys the work of Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy. But frankly, this movie is little more than stuffy high class pap. Unfortunately, that seemed to be a common trait with quite a few movies in the early years of the Depression -- an obsession with the wealthy.The story here is pretty simple -- Tony (Dunne) and Jim (Bellamy) Dunlap are happily married. But, dependable old Jim had once been in love with another woman who comes back to haunt everyone. So the old love steals Jim away from Dunne (yawn) and the question is -- will she keep him and will Dunne fight back. It's all rather trite and not at all clever.There's not a single performance in the film that I could admire. Certainly the worst film of either Dunne or Bellamy that I've ever seen.
View MoreThis has a great cast. Ralph Bellamy is always good and here he is not an object of ridicule. Of course, I watched it for Irene Dunne. And she is the fulcrum of the piece, looking mousy but acting like a tigress. Sidney Blackmer, who became a distinguished stage actor, is convincing and quite attractive as a rich bad boy.The two standouts are Kay Johnson as Dunne's sister-in-law and the fine actress, also a marvelous stage performer many years later, Constance Cummings.The Cummings character is the best developed and most interesting. Just back from a divorce and ready for trouble, she is like a character from "The Women." Her role is a bit more well rounded than the characters in that movie.
View MoreFast paced and pretty good dialogue throughout, plus runs about 1 hr 15 min.The women are given the best lines -- sharp, funny, and often catty. Though their characters are quite minor to the story, I enjoyed the lines between husband and wife Slim and Rita, or "Cookie" and "Pookie" as they called each other. It was quite funny to hear them call each other by such cute little pet names, followed by a jab or barb or criticism! I don't think they said one nice thing to each other! The other supporting couples in the flick were always snapping at each other too -- Bea and Jud, and Fran and Mort.The two main characters, Toni and Jim, are very much in love and exhibit some nice friendly banter at the beginning of the movie. This doesn't last for long as Jim's ex-fiancé, Fran, breezes into town, freshly divorced with a new dude already lined up (Mort) and setting her sights on winning Jim back ... not permanently, just for a night. Constance Cummings is great as Fran! Toni suffers through Jim's infidelity and even forgives him as she wants to save her marriage and her family (they have a 2-yr-old boy). Eventually, however, she decides she's had enough and files for divorce.What's interesting (and one of the reasons I like to watch these older movies) is the glimpse we get into how things were done back in the day. Jim asks Toni where she filed for divorce, and is aghast to learn she filed in the state they live in. From what I can gather, she could've run off to Reno (as Fran did, and as so many women in films from the 1930s did, and get what amounts to a 'no fault' divorce). But, since Toni filed in the state they lived in (New York?) where there was only one grounds for divorce - infidelity - this required her to name a 'correspondent' (i.e., the outside party whom the spouse cheated with). Fran is quite upset to learn that Toni has filed in state and has named her as the correspondent. I really enjoy these little snippets into how life used to be long before I was born. It adds to the enjoyment of the movie somehow, a little history lesson along with my entertainment.Anyways ... back to the movie. Fran doesn't want to be involved in a scandal and, in addition, has since learned that Mortie is stinking rich, so she ups and marries him, hoping this will dissuade Toni from divorcing Jim (and naming Fran as correspondent). Jim comes crawling back to Toni and the movie ends with them kissing (presumably Toni's going to take him back). I'd have liked to see Toni kick Jim to the curb, but alas it looks like she's going to take him back instead.Toni was played wonderfully by Irene Dunn, and Jim was played by Ralph Bellamy. It was nice to see what the old coot from Trading Places looked like back when he was a young man.Pretty good, not great, but I wasn't disappointed that I watched it either. This movie appears on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) every once in a while.
View MoreI probably saw this on American Movie Classics and did not tape it, not realizing that my chance would not come again. This movie is fun. Irene Dunne was in the early years when she was still playing heroic roles and here she plays the wife who is done wrong. It was refreshing to see Ralph Bellamy who so often played the put upon boy-friend who lost the girl to Cary Grant, as instead the object of desire fought over by the two women. But as I remember the movie it is Constance Cummings who gets to steal the movie because she is given some of the most interesting reasons for husband stealing, forgiveness of same and even has the audacity to lecture Irene Dunne -in a very sophisticated, urbane way of course. I wish it would come out of DVD. Failing that I wish Turner Classic Movies or AMC would run it again so I can tape it.
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