Witty? Hardly. Hilarious? Never. Perhaps with a director like Preston Sturges this would have worked.
Phrases like "dull as dishwater" or "Is this fine mess supposed to be a rip-roaring screwball comedy?" would be more apt.
No, I'm decidedly not interested in seeing this one more than once. Even Spring Byington is not her usual chipper self in an annoying role as a town gossip. Thomas Mitchell manages to infuse some life in the opening half of the film, but even Mitchell, talented as he is, is stuck with a dull script that goes nowhere fast.
And as for IRENE DUNNE and MELVYN DOUGLAS, while I agree that they both have credentials galore in smart screwball comedies, this is not one of them. Neither one is at their best here, plodding through a limp comedy that has not worn well at all. A few smart witticisms would have helped but the script is a painfully dull affair about a novelist smothered by the hypocrisy of living in a small town where the latest best-seller is causing a stir--and happens to have been written by her. It may have sounded good on paper, but as executed here, it doesn't work.
Nothing can save this from sinking not long after the painful opening depicting the town gossips and then hammering home the point that they are all well overdue for a comeuppance from somebody! At least the ending gets some credit for showing a bit of daring in its comic twist, but other than that, it is hard to recommend this as a screwball comedy to anyone familiar with the genre. Somewhere, something went very wrong.
And how Irene Dunne got an Oscar nomination for this bit of trivia is a puzzlement. She is nowhere as smooth and proficient at comedy here as she was in MY FAVORITE WIFE.
Phrases like "dull as dishwater" or "Is this fine mess supposed to be a rip-roaring screwball comedy?" would be more apt.
No, I'm decidedly not interested in seeing this one more than once. Even Spring Byington is not her usual chipper self in an annoying role as a town gossip. Thomas Mitchell manages to infuse some life in the opening half of the film, but even Mitchell, talented as he is, is stuck with a dull script that goes nowhere fast.
And as for IRENE DUNNE and MELVYN DOUGLAS, while I agree that they both have credentials galore in smart screwball comedies, this is not one of them. Neither one is at their best here, plodding through a limp comedy that has not worn well at all. A few smart witticisms would have helped but the script is a painfully dull affair about a novelist smothered by the hypocrisy of living in a small town where the latest best-seller is causing a stir--and happens to have been written by her. It may have sounded good on paper, but as executed here, it doesn't work.
Nothing can save this from sinking not long after the painful opening depicting the town gossips and then hammering home the point that they are all well overdue for a comeuppance from somebody! At least the ending gets some credit for showing a bit of daring in its comic twist, but other than that, it is hard to recommend this as a screwball comedy to anyone familiar with the genre. Somewhere, something went very wrong.
And how Irene Dunne got an Oscar nomination for this bit of trivia is a puzzlement. She is nowhere as smooth and proficient at comedy here as she was in MY FAVORITE WIFE.