It's been said that screwball comedy was not Joan Crawford's forte, but she does have great comic timing if not the dizzy personality to go with it. It's another n this time Crawford who has discovered that her fiance was only after her money. pretending to be a longtime admirer of hers, Gable helps her escape from the press (particularly rival reporter Franchot Tone) and they hide out in a French Museum where the deliciously insane Donald Meek mingles with them as if they were the ghosts of past French aristocrats. then there's the Spy story, involving Reginald Owen and Cora Witherspoon who are after a map they believe that Gable and Crawford stole off a plane Gable was flying.
The first half of this movie is extremely enjoyable, but when Owen and Witherspoon show up after all of the antics in France, the film goes awry. It's ironic to see Crawford with former lover Gable and then husband Tone, with Gable much more dominating and Tone presented in a role that Ralph Bellamy in the screwball comedy genre was typecast in. The screenwriters really could have cut out the spy subplot because there was enough going on, and funny stuff that is, to where that part of the story was not really needed. Indeed that makes the film seem much longer than it was, although it was obvious that Gable and Crawford were having a lot of fun making this. The secret to their chemistry is the fact that they mix romance with humor, and even with his macho personality, Gable seem to consider Crawford his equal. The two stars and the MGM gloss, plus the hysterical performance by Meek, makes this an enjoyable if mixed screwball comedy that suffers only from unnecessary plot twists that distract from the main story.
The first half of this movie is extremely enjoyable, but when Owen and Witherspoon show up after all of the antics in France, the film goes awry. It's ironic to see Crawford with former lover Gable and then husband Tone, with Gable much more dominating and Tone presented in a role that Ralph Bellamy in the screwball comedy genre was typecast in. The screenwriters really could have cut out the spy subplot because there was enough going on, and funny stuff that is, to where that part of the story was not really needed. Indeed that makes the film seem much longer than it was, although it was obvious that Gable and Crawford were having a lot of fun making this. The secret to their chemistry is the fact that they mix romance with humor, and even with his macho personality, Gable seem to consider Crawford his equal. The two stars and the MGM gloss, plus the hysterical performance by Meek, makes this an enjoyable if mixed screwball comedy that suffers only from unnecessary plot twists that distract from the main story.