Powell operates as shady as he'll get and since he's a conniver on the order of Lee Tracy in "Half-Naked Truth", I can't help but like him. He's hustling to survive in Depression America and my goodness, do the rich have it coming to them to be defrauded? This film says yes.
Davis looks fine in her new 'do and I can believe she's a designer of clothing. What's harder to take is her love for Powell because it springs from nowhere, naturally a common feature in a short running time. Maybe she wanted to compare "funny walks" with him, because her hip sashay stride and his lope are certainly distinctive!
The human harp number and in particular, the use of ostrich feathers, stood out for me by being just the sort of dizzy devices to hang a plot on: Hugh Herbert had his work cut out for him selling those plumes. This could have been a commentary on how plumes decorated fashions in the teens and '20s but by 1930s were out of fashion?
What made me LOL was McHugh and his cheery pursuit of ladies and the way he was flummoxed by one darn thing after another spoiling his rendezvous with a willing girl. His distinctive laugh over the French postcards was better, I guess, than him leering and panting. He did well for comic relief in a larger part than usual. I read in Pat O'Brien's autobiography that O'Brien and McHugh would get together in the 40's and 50s to wonder why they received fewer and fewer offers of film work, well this is why. Delightful as they are in the 30's, they seemed to be in hundreds of films courtesy Warners and folks just got tired of them.
In conclusion, Powell makes the movie watchable.
Davis looks fine in her new 'do and I can believe she's a designer of clothing. What's harder to take is her love for Powell because it springs from nowhere, naturally a common feature in a short running time. Maybe she wanted to compare "funny walks" with him, because her hip sashay stride and his lope are certainly distinctive!
The human harp number and in particular, the use of ostrich feathers, stood out for me by being just the sort of dizzy devices to hang a plot on: Hugh Herbert had his work cut out for him selling those plumes. This could have been a commentary on how plumes decorated fashions in the teens and '20s but by 1930s were out of fashion?
What made me LOL was McHugh and his cheery pursuit of ladies and the way he was flummoxed by one darn thing after another spoiling his rendezvous with a willing girl. His distinctive laugh over the French postcards was better, I guess, than him leering and panting. He did well for comic relief in a larger part than usual. I read in Pat O'Brien's autobiography that O'Brien and McHugh would get together in the 40's and 50s to wonder why they received fewer and fewer offers of film work, well this is why. Delightful as they are in the 30's, they seemed to be in hundreds of films courtesy Warners and folks just got tired of them.
In conclusion, Powell makes the movie watchable.