It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Excellent dialogue and compelling interpersonal exploration mark this sophisticated pre-code comedy, drama with terrific performances by all the principals in the cast including: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, Alice Brady, Frank Morgan, even Sterling Holloway (though very briefly & uncredited as a caddy).Directed by Harry Beaumont with a screenplay co-written by John Meehan, the film's Art Direction earned Cedric Gibbons his second Academy Award nomination. When the film was remade in 1941, with Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Herbert Marshall, and Spring Byington, Gibbons earned his twelfth Art Direction Oscar nomination.Loy plays a writer who won't marry Montgomery but instead goes off with her married publisher Morgan. Ironically, her latest unpublished work, about a married man and his mistress, is actually a thinly veiled account of her affair with him. In the book, the married man leaves his wife for his mistress and he and the mistress live happily ever after. Montgomery reads the books and says it doesn't ring true. Morgan's married to Harding. Brady plays a mutual friend whose home becomes the place where most of the truths come to light.Loy and Morgan are there for a rendezvous; Montgomery hears of it, and brings Harding to the "party". Loy and Harding have some discussions during which Harding figures out what's going on and Loy becomes fond of her "rival". Montgomery learns that Morgan's intentions, as he suspected, are not entirely honorable. All along, he'd rightly suspected that Morgan was just enjoying Loy's company and "services" with no intention of leaving his wife for her. Harding plays the long suffering wife of a man who strays, yet always accepts him back after he'd had his fun. The initially confident Loy becomes disillusioned.

Hey, I like both versions of this film. Not into parsing them either. The assembled talent, story, parts, clothes, set. This is the kind of movie I like to watch multiple times. First, watch the movie through. Then, maybe follow separate characters through. There's a lot going on. Then, watch the clothes. Then, check out the house, furniture, etc. There was so much style put into these. All of these elements are what made these 30's and 40's films so special. I don't understand why all the comparisons and nitpicking. This film has a lot to enjoy. It's entertainment, folks. If you don't find something so, leave it alone. Simple enough.

This first film version of the Rachel Crothers play finds Robert Montgomery as the irrepressible playboy who will do just about anything to win Myrna Loy back from the clutches of married publisher Frank Morgan. Even if that means bringing Morgan's wife Ann Harding into the picture. And When Ladies Meet, watch out. A later version was done by MGM but with more of an emphasis on the mistress than the wife. Joan Crawford had Myrna Loy's role and Ann Harding's part was done by Greer Garson. Robert Taylor played Montgomery's role and the difference between the two films is the quality of their performances. Taylor had developed a real gift for light comedy, but for Robert Montgomery this kind of part was what made his reputation. Frank Morgan was far better than Herbert Marshall because he played the role as the two timing rat he was. You watch Marshall's performance and you'd think he was the wronged party. As for Morgan, no one loved him more than I in the role of the inept bumbler he usually played, but parts like in When Ladies Meet and also in Hallelujah, I'm a Bum do show him to good advantage in other kinds of roles. It's hard to choose between Garson and Harding though. Both of them have the best part in the film and both make equally good use of it. Each are the best in their respective casts.Eliminated from the second version is a great deadpan performance by Sterling Holloway as the allergy prone golf caddy who destroys Montgomery's game as he's playing with Harding.The original play ran on Broadway for 191 performances in the 1932-1933 season and starred Walter Abel, Frieda Inescourt, Herbert Rawlinson and Selena Royle. Ironically all of these folks had substantial film careers, but could never be classified as any kind of box office. When Ladies Meet is witty and bright and a great example of the sophisticated type comedy that's just not being done any more.

I was so prepared to fall in love with this film, after hearing glowing remarks about it from other people. So I sat down to watch, expecting a real precode treat, and what I saw was a very unrealistic and rather silly scenario of two women appearing to like each other, one who is married and has children (Ann Harding) by the other lady's publisher (Frank Morgan), while he conducts a secret affair with the writer (Myrna Loy). Sound complicated and sleazy already? You're starting to get the picture.Bob Montgomery plays a real airhead here and I had no patience with him. He is in love with the Myrna Loy writer character who is having the affair with the married man, and is low down enough to bring the publisher's unsuspecting wife to the trysting place of her husband and his paramour, knowing that eventually there will be a major confrontation and people he supposedly likes will be hurt. I usually love Bob Montgomery, but he really tried my patience here with this character. He behaves like a spoiled kid who whines because he can't have a lollipop he's always wanted. I also usually love Myrna Loy, but her character here was an idiot. I kept talking to her through the screen, "Wake up! You know you don't really believe all this 'live and let live' nonsense you're spouting." (Yes, I know, I'm losing it, talking to dead actors on a screen, but hey, it takes all kinds to make a world). ;)Ann Harding was the only one who showed some dignity in this story, and I enjoyed her performance. One wonders how her character was so stupid to marry this publisher in the first place though.Comic relief was also supplied by fruitcake Alice Brady and her ever-present, obvious lover, the piano player Walter (played delightfully by an actor named Martin Burton, who had me giggling like crazy; would love to see more of his work).7 out of 10.