A striking effort in its own right, though not in the ways that make one generation pass a film lovingly down to the next.
60
TV Guide Magazine
TV Guide Magazine
Most of the superstars in this fascinating but offbeat production are thoroughly unrecognizable, buried under pounds of makeup or smothered in cumbersome costumes.
60
Variety
Variety
On the screen it is vividly realized in all its fantastic angles. The humor is genuine and the treatment satisfying on its literary side. But an hour and a quarter of it is overpoweringly sedative. [26 Dec 1933, p.10]
50
The New YorkerPauline Kael
The New YorkerPauline Kael
The film was lavishly produced, with great care given to the sets and costumes and makeup, but the spirit is missing.
50
Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair
It was hoped that the picture would have a large appeal for children, but the consensus of opinion seems to have been that even the Little Ones had rather see Jean Harlow any day, or else stay home in the nursery and play Tick-Tack-Toe.
40
Time Out
Time Out
Most of the blame must rest with McLeod, whose incredibly cackhanded direction piles on the whimsy by the bucket-load and can't come to grips with the absurdity at all.