I woke up this morning, this short MGM B feature was just starting on TCM, and I realized I hadn't seen it before, so I decided to stick around. Well, at first I was getting bored. Oh no, I thought, another MGM pre-war high society comedy/drama of manners in which the production values are excellent, but the meat is just not on the bones.
Well, it turned out better than I thought. The plot was engaging, although it is just a retread of "The Flesh is Weak" from the early 1930s. But at just under an hour it does not outstay its welcome. It's about a young man, Max Clemington (Robert Cummings), who is poor and is looking for a wealthy woman to wed. His dad (Nigel Bruce) is also poor and father and son are boarding in a room in a run down boarding house. But Max has a tux, gets in with a society group acting like one of them, and goes looking for said wife. Lady Joan Culver (Judith Anderson) is instantly interested and very rich, but Max can't help being attracted to beautiful widow Martha Gray (Ruth Hussey), who seems to have some kind of understanding with the obnoxious Sir George Kelvin (Reginald Owen).
Well, you can't say Max isn't honest. He lets Martha know up front that he is poor and is looking for a rich wife, and she turns him away saying that is not the kind of marriage she wants. At first you think it is just because Max is lazy and looking for an easy way out of a day's work. But there is more to it than that, and at that point the film becomes quite interesting. I was pretty sure of the destination, but the voyage was full of twists and turns, and a pretty good remake for the production code era.
Nigel Bruce is great as the father who means well but winds up causing quite a predicament. C. Aubrey Smith, who played Bruce's part in the original "The Flesh is Weak", plays Judith Anderson's dad who is good natured but has horse flesh on his brains. And Judith Anderson almost steals the picture as a girl who may not be great looking, but turns out to be a class act all of the way.
What would I take points off for? Mainly, because I kept wishing that Ruth Hussey was Myrna Loy and Robert Cummings was Robert Montgomery (like in the original), but then it wouldn't be a B production, now would it? Plus both Loy and Montgomery were, by 1941, about 5 years too old for the parts. Ruth Hussey was always good in supporting roles, but she just couldn't carry a lead in a film IMHO.
Well, it turned out better than I thought. The plot was engaging, although it is just a retread of "The Flesh is Weak" from the early 1930s. But at just under an hour it does not outstay its welcome. It's about a young man, Max Clemington (Robert Cummings), who is poor and is looking for a wealthy woman to wed. His dad (Nigel Bruce) is also poor and father and son are boarding in a room in a run down boarding house. But Max has a tux, gets in with a society group acting like one of them, and goes looking for said wife. Lady Joan Culver (Judith Anderson) is instantly interested and very rich, but Max can't help being attracted to beautiful widow Martha Gray (Ruth Hussey), who seems to have some kind of understanding with the obnoxious Sir George Kelvin (Reginald Owen).
Well, you can't say Max isn't honest. He lets Martha know up front that he is poor and is looking for a rich wife, and she turns him away saying that is not the kind of marriage she wants. At first you think it is just because Max is lazy and looking for an easy way out of a day's work. But there is more to it than that, and at that point the film becomes quite interesting. I was pretty sure of the destination, but the voyage was full of twists and turns, and a pretty good remake for the production code era.
Nigel Bruce is great as the father who means well but winds up causing quite a predicament. C. Aubrey Smith, who played Bruce's part in the original "The Flesh is Weak", plays Judith Anderson's dad who is good natured but has horse flesh on his brains. And Judith Anderson almost steals the picture as a girl who may not be great looking, but turns out to be a class act all of the way.
What would I take points off for? Mainly, because I kept wishing that Ruth Hussey was Myrna Loy and Robert Cummings was Robert Montgomery (like in the original), but then it wouldn't be a B production, now would it? Plus both Loy and Montgomery were, by 1941, about 5 years too old for the parts. Ruth Hussey was always good in supporting roles, but she just couldn't carry a lead in a film IMHO.