Being a fan of time travel stories as well as the 18th century, I couldn't help enjoying this film, and since Leslie Howard's another of my fav classic actors, this made the movie more enjoyable. I can't fault Leslie's performance as Peter Standish, the American in 1930's London, living in his ancestors' Georgian home, who transposes with his 18thc namesake/lookalike and ends up in the same house a century and a half earlier, taking his place, courting his distant cousin, Kate, and falling for her younger sister, Helen (Heather Angel, who sometimes appears angelic.) However, he's not supposed to change history, and history states Peter and Kate married and had a family. Can his head rule over his heart?
Where this movie flawed was in having Peter make one mistake too many, when he slipped up and said something he shouldn't have. It was inevitable that would happen and to be expected when it came to letting slip a modern expression, or not following expected social customs (using his being from America as an excuse). But when he foolishly talks to Joshua Reynolds about a painting he hasn't even finished and mentions the name of it before the artist decided what that would be, that was just careless! He should have realized that, unless he knew exactly when the painting was first displayed to the public, it would be too risky to mention.
Then, toward the end (at a time when he was actually considering staying in that time to be with Helen), he throws caution to the wind, starts deliberately speaking of things he shouldn't know and that wouldn't make sense, and insults everybody to boot! It's a wonder he wasn't challenged to a duel!
The whole my time vs. Your time vs. God's time was a bit on the hokey side.
He wasn't much better in his own time either, as he didn't treat his fiancée, Marjorie (Betty Lawford) very well, pretty much ignoring her before the time travel, then dismissing her afterward, despite her having wanted to help him all along.
This script needed some fine tuning.
Where this movie flawed was in having Peter make one mistake too many, when he slipped up and said something he shouldn't have. It was inevitable that would happen and to be expected when it came to letting slip a modern expression, or not following expected social customs (using his being from America as an excuse). But when he foolishly talks to Joshua Reynolds about a painting he hasn't even finished and mentions the name of it before the artist decided what that would be, that was just careless! He should have realized that, unless he knew exactly when the painting was first displayed to the public, it would be too risky to mention.
Then, toward the end (at a time when he was actually considering staying in that time to be with Helen), he throws caution to the wind, starts deliberately speaking of things he shouldn't know and that wouldn't make sense, and insults everybody to boot! It's a wonder he wasn't challenged to a duel!
The whole my time vs. Your time vs. God's time was a bit on the hokey side.
He wasn't much better in his own time either, as he didn't treat his fiancée, Marjorie (Betty Lawford) very well, pretty much ignoring her before the time travel, then dismissing her afterward, despite her having wanted to help him all along.
This script needed some fine tuning.