1931 -- pre-code -- men in evening dress, women in gauzy gowns, kissing of hands, coy glances, dialog to match the milieu. Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins meet in Venice to discover that each is a petty thief trying to steal from each other. Marshall and his posh accent, posing as a doctor, has bopped Edward Everette Horton on the head and stolen his money. Better that the now partnered-couple of Hopkins and Marshall leave town, and they do -- for France.
There, Marshall steals the jewel-encrusted handbag of the extraordinarily rich socialite Kay Francis and returns it for the reward, insinuates his way into her graces, and becomes her, um, secretary. He handles all of her finances and sees to it that her business is cleaned up and she has a substantial amount of francs stashed in her wall safe, to which he has memorized the combination.
The plan is for Marshall and Hopkins to steal the cash and make off quickly before their identities are exploded, because already some remote acquaintances from Venice have been showing up and, coulant en regarde, are wondering where they've met Marshall before. They COULD make it but the fly in the ointment is that Marshall and Francis hunger for one another. Should Marshall dump the savvy but small-minded Hopkins for the sophisticated and monumentally wealthy Francis? In another kind of movie, he would, but this was directed from a nothing Hungarian play by Ernst Lubitsch. His values are a little different from those of most other directors in Hollywood, matched only perhaps by those of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges.
The first time I saw a few minutes of it, years ago, it seemed old, discursive and boring. Saw it more recently and now I can understand the esteem in which so many others hold it. It's pretty funny.
There, Marshall steals the jewel-encrusted handbag of the extraordinarily rich socialite Kay Francis and returns it for the reward, insinuates his way into her graces, and becomes her, um, secretary. He handles all of her finances and sees to it that her business is cleaned up and she has a substantial amount of francs stashed in her wall safe, to which he has memorized the combination.
The plan is for Marshall and Hopkins to steal the cash and make off quickly before their identities are exploded, because already some remote acquaintances from Venice have been showing up and, coulant en regarde, are wondering where they've met Marshall before. They COULD make it but the fly in the ointment is that Marshall and Francis hunger for one another. Should Marshall dump the savvy but small-minded Hopkins for the sophisticated and monumentally wealthy Francis? In another kind of movie, he would, but this was directed from a nothing Hungarian play by Ernst Lubitsch. His values are a little different from those of most other directors in Hollywood, matched only perhaps by those of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges.
The first time I saw a few minutes of it, years ago, it seemed old, discursive and boring. Saw it more recently and now I can understand the esteem in which so many others hold it. It's pretty funny.