5/10
Dull screwball comedy never misses a cliché...
30 March 2007
Only faithful fans of MIRIAM HOPKINS or JOEL McCREA could possibly want to sit through this screwball comedy full of impossible situations and banal dialog.

Fast talking Hopkins is an architect (c'mon, that's what it says) full of pep talk when she schemes her way into CHARLES WINNINGER's office to sell him on her wonderful housing designs. (How many times has Winninger played a daffy millionaire in '30s endless parade of screwball comedies???).

He admits the plans look great--but the hitch is he's no longer a millionaire having lost all his money on crazy schemes. But wait. He's got a son (JOEL McCREA), more sensible than him who's got lots of money. All it's going to take is for someone (like Miriam maybe?) to separate him from it so they can go ahead with her plans to make Hopkins and Winninger rich.

That's about it for starters. But it gets even sillier once Winninger takes her to his home (after she's fainted a couple of times because the poor thing hasn't eaten in 49 hours). And once ERIC RHODES, BRODERICK CRAWFORD and ELLA LOGAN enter the scene, it gets sillier and more improbable with each dubious remark.

Hopkins is photographed attractively and puts a lot of spirit into playing a ditsy architect, but it's obvious from the start that this is not going to go down as one of the best screwball comedies of the '30s--not by a long stretch.

Winninger seems to be doing a warm-up for his other millionaire role in HARD TO GET ('38), again involved with an architect (DICK POWELL) and the scatterbrained daughter (OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND) who wants to get revenge on Powell for his mistreatment of her. He spent a lot of time in the '30s and '40s playing daffy millionaires who ruled over nutsy, filthy rich households.

Summing up: Not worth a peek.
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