When first seen, young Diana Barrymore is seen padded and covered with old age make-up, playing Queen Victoria to a sold out audience and getting a standing ovation. This dramatic young lady appears to be more than twice her age, and the audience is only made aware of that when she heads back to her dressing room and begins to disrobe while making romantic small talk with one of her co-stars as maid Mary Treen wisecracks. It is quite the transformation, and makes one imagine what such actresses as Helen Hayes, Anna Neagle and Irene Dunne went through when they turned their lovely selves into her majesty.
Returning home to visit her lovely mother (Kay Francis), Barrymore learns that she has a new beau and decides to continue her play acting by dressing up as a little girl. When the distinguished boyfriend (John Boles) shows up with young Robert Cummings, Barrymore pounces down the stairs, appearing to be a pre-teen and acting quite flighty. This creates all sorts of comic tension, especially when vinegary housekeeper Ethel Griffies comes in and ends up locked in the closet. You can tell that this isn't your typical Kay Francis mother love drama as the two have a grand old time fooling both Boles and Cummings, even at the expense of almost loosing the devoted but no-nonsense Griffies.
While there is definitely a similar storyline in the same year's "The Major and the Minor", this film is quite different in its screwy tone, much more cartoonish and consistently filled with much laughter. When Francis tells her daughter, "Lying is part of every woman's job. Sometimes, it's their only defense", you know that this is the set-up for a very zany farce-filled movie. Barrymore, just approaching adulthood with this role, seems to thoroughly be enjoying the many layers of her character, making such observations as "When you think of all the trouble that blonds have to go through. Bleaching, bleaching and bleaching. You can always tell when a beautiful blonde is a fake. The hair goes dark at the roots. I don't know why blonds want to get blonder. I guess because they are ambitious. Brunettes never have to get brunetter. I guess that's because they are modest!"
As for Kay Francis, this is another one of her fun-loving supporting parts that began with the bitchy wife of Cary Grant in "In Name Only", continued as Deanna Durbin's actress mother in "It's a Date" and turned into a delicious cat-fight with Rosalind Russell in "The Feminine Touch". She disappears through the middle of the film but isn't at all wasted. John Boles is wasted as Francis's lover, and Robert Cummings seems too smart to be fooled by Barrymore. Funny character performances by Andy Devine and Lillian Yarbo round out the frantic pace. With its clever, if sometimes too frantic, script and direction by Henry Koster, this is one of those rare comic treats that has to be seen to be believed.
Returning home to visit her lovely mother (Kay Francis), Barrymore learns that she has a new beau and decides to continue her play acting by dressing up as a little girl. When the distinguished boyfriend (John Boles) shows up with young Robert Cummings, Barrymore pounces down the stairs, appearing to be a pre-teen and acting quite flighty. This creates all sorts of comic tension, especially when vinegary housekeeper Ethel Griffies comes in and ends up locked in the closet. You can tell that this isn't your typical Kay Francis mother love drama as the two have a grand old time fooling both Boles and Cummings, even at the expense of almost loosing the devoted but no-nonsense Griffies.
While there is definitely a similar storyline in the same year's "The Major and the Minor", this film is quite different in its screwy tone, much more cartoonish and consistently filled with much laughter. When Francis tells her daughter, "Lying is part of every woman's job. Sometimes, it's their only defense", you know that this is the set-up for a very zany farce-filled movie. Barrymore, just approaching adulthood with this role, seems to thoroughly be enjoying the many layers of her character, making such observations as "When you think of all the trouble that blonds have to go through. Bleaching, bleaching and bleaching. You can always tell when a beautiful blonde is a fake. The hair goes dark at the roots. I don't know why blonds want to get blonder. I guess because they are ambitious. Brunettes never have to get brunetter. I guess that's because they are modest!"
As for Kay Francis, this is another one of her fun-loving supporting parts that began with the bitchy wife of Cary Grant in "In Name Only", continued as Deanna Durbin's actress mother in "It's a Date" and turned into a delicious cat-fight with Rosalind Russell in "The Feminine Touch". She disappears through the middle of the film but isn't at all wasted. John Boles is wasted as Francis's lover, and Robert Cummings seems too smart to be fooled by Barrymore. Funny character performances by Andy Devine and Lillian Yarbo round out the frantic pace. With its clever, if sometimes too frantic, script and direction by Henry Koster, this is one of those rare comic treats that has to be seen to be believed.