I had some hopes of this 1943 what you might loosely call a screwball comedy, mainly due to my liking for its two main stars Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard. But unfortunately this is a screwball comedy with a few screws loose, notably on the comedic front and ended up being rather a waste of the leads' talents.
The plot is contrived to the point of incredulity not to say incredibility as events conspire to bring Milland and Goddard together, with the rich glamorous widow, Virginia Bruce tricked into believing that a fake medium can really predict the future. Bruce has designs on her late husband's best friend who now acts as her almost guardian, obviously Milland, who's nonetheless reluctant to get romantically involved.
Then along comes Goddard, a penniless failed beauty queen who separately encounters the fake sybil and who's then pressed into action as her stand-in which naturally brings her into contact with Milland.
Inevitably, the duo get involved in an on-off romance which comes under threat when Bruce jealously intervenes but you won't even need to read tea-leaves, never mind the crystal ball of the title to guess how this one turns out.
There's nothing like a funny screwball comedy and sadly this is nothing like a funny screwball comedy. Milland and Goddard try hard and you can see there is some sort of spark between them, after all they did make four movies together in the 40's, but ultimately they just can't salvage this confused and cluttered feature.
I wish I'd used that crystal ball of theirs to see how this particular story played out. If I had I certainly wouldn't have crossed anyone's palm with silver.
The plot is contrived to the point of incredulity not to say incredibility as events conspire to bring Milland and Goddard together, with the rich glamorous widow, Virginia Bruce tricked into believing that a fake medium can really predict the future. Bruce has designs on her late husband's best friend who now acts as her almost guardian, obviously Milland, who's nonetheless reluctant to get romantically involved.
Then along comes Goddard, a penniless failed beauty queen who separately encounters the fake sybil and who's then pressed into action as her stand-in which naturally brings her into contact with Milland.
Inevitably, the duo get involved in an on-off romance which comes under threat when Bruce jealously intervenes but you won't even need to read tea-leaves, never mind the crystal ball of the title to guess how this one turns out.
There's nothing like a funny screwball comedy and sadly this is nothing like a funny screwball comedy. Milland and Goddard try hard and you can see there is some sort of spark between them, after all they did make four movies together in the 40's, but ultimately they just can't salvage this confused and cluttered feature.
I wish I'd used that crystal ball of theirs to see how this particular story played out. If I had I certainly wouldn't have crossed anyone's palm with silver.