This film could have been good, were it not for a shoddy screenplay and very choppy storytelling. Bob, a free-willed, caddish painter (Robert Montgomery- it's always funny when actors play characters with their own names) meets Julie, a rich woman not wanting to be rich (Rosalind Russell) after she falls into his canvas while he is painting. He gets mad at her, she gets mad at him, she (pretends to...I think) passes out and then...they're getting married.
Why are they getting married? How much time has passed since when she fainted? They don't tell us, but we can only assume that it's the same day. Only in the movies, folks. Yet, when Bob and Julie kiss, she's...magically in love with him? And of course, Roz being Roz, she's wearing a ridiculous hat in that scene. They move into Bob's modest apartment (modest for an M-G-M production), with his charming little (probably gay like homosexual) friend Oscar. Bob, Oscar and Julie live the gay (happy gay) life, ripping off grocers and painting pictures...but...
Back into Julie's life comes an annoying "friend" called Lilly. The actress who plays her speaks in an annoying, put-upon accent that sounds like a mix of Katharine Hepburn and Greer Garson- IT DROVE ME NUTS. I WANTED TO SLAP HER. She doesn't become evil until later.
After an incident in the park between the navy and the "bellhops", which results in a massive brawl and Bob and Julie spending the night in jail, people suddenly become interested in Bob's work. There is a funny gag which involves them scaring off reporters and art critics *and slightly before that, an unexpected Garbo reference ("He VANTS to be alone.") But, after mistaking an important art gallery owner for another pesky reporter (more screwball), the film that was a light comedy takes a jarring turn into hokey melodramatics.
Bob lets the guy display his work, has a successful opening night, becomes rich under the guidance of Shrilly Lilly, leaves Julie in the dust, and becomes a caddish cadsicle father of all caddish cads. Julie, led back into the life she had wanted to escape, is unhappy, and not even Oscar can cheer her up. After a fight between her and Bob, in which she defaces an important portrait Bob is painting, Julie decides to get a divorce.
Bob can't paint after she's gone, he realizes, so he leaves his high-rise penthouse, his money, and Lilly in the dust *THANK GOODNESS*, and gets back with Julie. There is an amusing slapstick finale.
Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell do what they can with their roles, as do the supporting cast, but the main problem is that they're just too underwritten. Montgomery's character is especially unlikable, and Roz's character comes across as more pathetic than usual. The screenplay appears to have been written in the dark, changing from screwball to melodramatics every five minutes. Despite being less than an hour and twenty minutes, the pace drags badly.
More things I noticed:
Montey Wolley looks kind of like Emil Jannings did in Der Blaue Engel.
Robert Montgomery only wears one dinner jacket.
This same year (1937), Bob and Roz would co-star in the minor classic Night Must Fall.
The set of the modest home is nicer, versus the penthouse Bob and Julie rent later in the film. The penthouse is a good example of how NOT to make an art deco set.
That's all.
Not the worst way to spend an hour and twenty minutes, but these two have made better movies. Check out The Women or Private Lives instead.
Why are they getting married? How much time has passed since when she fainted? They don't tell us, but we can only assume that it's the same day. Only in the movies, folks. Yet, when Bob and Julie kiss, she's...magically in love with him? And of course, Roz being Roz, she's wearing a ridiculous hat in that scene. They move into Bob's modest apartment (modest for an M-G-M production), with his charming little (probably gay like homosexual) friend Oscar. Bob, Oscar and Julie live the gay (happy gay) life, ripping off grocers and painting pictures...but...
Back into Julie's life comes an annoying "friend" called Lilly. The actress who plays her speaks in an annoying, put-upon accent that sounds like a mix of Katharine Hepburn and Greer Garson- IT DROVE ME NUTS. I WANTED TO SLAP HER. She doesn't become evil until later.
After an incident in the park between the navy and the "bellhops", which results in a massive brawl and Bob and Julie spending the night in jail, people suddenly become interested in Bob's work. There is a funny gag which involves them scaring off reporters and art critics *and slightly before that, an unexpected Garbo reference ("He VANTS to be alone.") But, after mistaking an important art gallery owner for another pesky reporter (more screwball), the film that was a light comedy takes a jarring turn into hokey melodramatics.
Bob lets the guy display his work, has a successful opening night, becomes rich under the guidance of Shrilly Lilly, leaves Julie in the dust, and becomes a caddish cadsicle father of all caddish cads. Julie, led back into the life she had wanted to escape, is unhappy, and not even Oscar can cheer her up. After a fight between her and Bob, in which she defaces an important portrait Bob is painting, Julie decides to get a divorce.
Bob can't paint after she's gone, he realizes, so he leaves his high-rise penthouse, his money, and Lilly in the dust *THANK GOODNESS*, and gets back with Julie. There is an amusing slapstick finale.
Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell do what they can with their roles, as do the supporting cast, but the main problem is that they're just too underwritten. Montgomery's character is especially unlikable, and Roz's character comes across as more pathetic than usual. The screenplay appears to have been written in the dark, changing from screwball to melodramatics every five minutes. Despite being less than an hour and twenty minutes, the pace drags badly.
More things I noticed:
Montey Wolley looks kind of like Emil Jannings did in Der Blaue Engel.
Robert Montgomery only wears one dinner jacket.
This same year (1937), Bob and Roz would co-star in the minor classic Night Must Fall.
The set of the modest home is nicer, versus the penthouse Bob and Julie rent later in the film. The penthouse is a good example of how NOT to make an art deco set.
That's all.
Not the worst way to spend an hour and twenty minutes, but these two have made better movies. Check out The Women or Private Lives instead.