Thoroughly stagebound, this little production never leaves one house. That makes it tedious and repetitive toward the half-way point.
The good: the cast! Charlie Ruggles, always worth watching, plays a man presumed to be rich, so his creditors let him run up a debts he has no intention of repaying. In fact (not a spoiler) his former business partner ran off with all his money, so he believes the world owes him a living. Very few actors could pull this off and still seem sweet and kindly--thus the rather stilted and off-putting title. It almost seems like practice for the likeable con man he later played on a few episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies."
Backing Mister Ruggles are Iris Adrian as his wife, who later in her career became a nosy next-door-neighbor type ("That Darn Cat" etc.) and lovely Peggy Ann Garner (no relation to James, whose birth name wasn't Garner) as the daughter he hopes to marry off for money.
In support are familiar faces to old-movie goers including Alan Mowbray and Fritz Feld. Also on hand is silent-film great Buster Keaton, whose welcome presence is more than a cameo. Keaton even gets in some slick sight gags I'm sure Balzac never thought of.
Yet the prime scene-stealer is German-born actor Curt Bois. Bois turns in a performance that practically carries the second half, just when the story begins to get tiresome.
Unfortunately, since the movie never opens out, the atmosphere gets stuffy in that one house. And it would have been nice to see an ending like the curious Doris Day vehicle "It's a Great Feeling" (released the same year as "The Lovable Cheat"). That's as far as I'll go down that road, but watch the "It's a Great Feeling" (available on DVD) after "The Lovable Cheat" and you'll see what I mean.
Otherwise, if your tastes in comedy can run in delightful if sedate family grooves, and you have a rainy hour and a quarter to kill, you may enjoy it. I did.
The good: the cast! Charlie Ruggles, always worth watching, plays a man presumed to be rich, so his creditors let him run up a debts he has no intention of repaying. In fact (not a spoiler) his former business partner ran off with all his money, so he believes the world owes him a living. Very few actors could pull this off and still seem sweet and kindly--thus the rather stilted and off-putting title. It almost seems like practice for the likeable con man he later played on a few episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies."
Backing Mister Ruggles are Iris Adrian as his wife, who later in her career became a nosy next-door-neighbor type ("That Darn Cat" etc.) and lovely Peggy Ann Garner (no relation to James, whose birth name wasn't Garner) as the daughter he hopes to marry off for money.
In support are familiar faces to old-movie goers including Alan Mowbray and Fritz Feld. Also on hand is silent-film great Buster Keaton, whose welcome presence is more than a cameo. Keaton even gets in some slick sight gags I'm sure Balzac never thought of.
Yet the prime scene-stealer is German-born actor Curt Bois. Bois turns in a performance that practically carries the second half, just when the story begins to get tiresome.
Unfortunately, since the movie never opens out, the atmosphere gets stuffy in that one house. And it would have been nice to see an ending like the curious Doris Day vehicle "It's a Great Feeling" (released the same year as "The Lovable Cheat"). That's as far as I'll go down that road, but watch the "It's a Great Feeling" (available on DVD) after "The Lovable Cheat" and you'll see what I mean.
Otherwise, if your tastes in comedy can run in delightful if sedate family grooves, and you have a rainy hour and a quarter to kill, you may enjoy it. I did.
