Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

utgard14 I'm not a big fan of most of Joan Crawford's movie from the '30s. Most of them revolve around dislikable characters, usually involved in stupid love triangles. Here's another winner. Joan's in love with Robert Montgomery, an incorrigible womanizer and liar. We're supposed to find his antics funny I guess. Anyway, Joan marries him knowing he's a louse. Then when he cheats she acts surprised and comes up with a stupid plan to get him back. Franchot Tone figures into this and he's no more likable than in any of his other movies with Joan.The comedy relief comes mostly from Edna May Oliver and Charlie Ruggles. Oliver was the best thing about the movie, though that seems overstated somewhat by other reviews I've read. She wasn't THAT good. It's not like she saved this sinking ship. For those of us who have seen Oliver in other, better movies, we know she has had better roles than this. But still, weighed against the rest of the cast, she is the best here. Ruggles is awful. He always was a mixed bag. Sometimes I could enjoy him but others he was just annoying. This is the latter, with Ruggles doing a terrible drunk act that got old in the first scene. Just a poor movie. I hated the main characters and didn't care what happened to them. Avoid it unless you're a die-hard fan of the stars and easily forgive their clunkers. Joan Fontaine makes her film debut under the name Joan Burfield.

movingpicturegal With Joan Crawford as satin-gowned, glamorous Marcia of the shades of white/art deco bedroom, Robert Montgomery as the well-dressed ladies man/playboy/heel who marries Marcia but can't stop chasing the ladies, sexy Franchot Tone as Jim, whose wife was stolen by our ladies man, Edna May Oliver as highball drinking, one-liner talking Grandma Fanny, and Charles Ruggles as the drunkard, plus a slick MGM look and feel - you would think this film would be smart, funny, terrific, all it should be - it's not.The problem here is the lousy script - the characters do things that make little sense or just seems dumb, and more importantly, the film is just BORING. I was pretty much thinking "when is this going to end" - that's not a good thing. I did *not* find the two main characters sympathetic, so could really care less what happened to them. I mean, the Robert Montgomery character is just a complete cad, he should have been thrown out by her right near the beginning. Joan Crawford's character just comes across as a brat to me - so who cares what happens with her anyway. Even my handsome Franchot Tone is given so little to do here, he's just wasted. The acting here is fine, but with the story as it is, this film is just dull. Edna May Oliver is the only saving grace here, she *is* pretty funny.

Neil Doyle MGM gloss is evident in every Joan Crawford close-up. As a matter of fact, it's evident in the loving way Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone have also been given handsome close-ups. But the big scene-stealer here is the lady who gets the best lines and the least flattering close-ups: Edna May Oliver.As a silver-haired dowager who enjoys putting stuffy society swells in their place with a tart remark, she's a welcome presence in a film with a plot so ordinary that it was hardly worth bothering about. You can sit through the whole film admiring the costumes Joan Crawford wears with her special flair for looking like a well-dressed mannequin, her marble face with those high cheekbones and huge eyes assuring us that she is the STAR of this tiresome nonsense, but your eyes will stray to Edna May whenever she takes hold of a scene. Thankfully, that's pretty often.When a baby-talking house guest calls someone "Peggy Weggy" she turns to Oliver who is supposed to introduce herself as Crawford's aunt. Missing hardly a beat, Oliver quips: "Just call me Fanny Aunty".Is this the same playwright who later wrote THE PHILADELPHIA STORY for Hepburn? The plot is simply boy loves girl, boy loses girl, boy loves girl in a nutshell. There are a few pleasant moments with Charlie Ruggles and Gail Patrick--and if you don't blink--Joan Fontaine makes a fleeting appearance with a pained expression on her face. Hardly an inspiring debut.Typical of the kind of fluff that began harming careers back in the 1930s. You can afford to miss it, believe me.

mritchie The unoriginal plot, about a rich married couple dealing with problems of infidelity, is secondary here to the clever dialogue by Donald Ogden Stewart, who wrote the screenplay to The Philadelphia Story, and to a strong supporing cast. Joan Crawford is fine, but Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone, fighting for Crawford's hand, wind up being nearly indistinguishable from each other, both in looks and in character. That leaves the supporting cast to rescue the film: Charles Ruggles has a fun bit as a slurring drunk and Arthur Treacher comes in at the end as a stuffy Brit who mumbles loudly and misuses American slang. Even Gail Patrick, who isn't normally given much to do in her man-stealing parts, is fine here. But the best is Edna May Oliver, playing the wise and witty matriarch--she steals every scene she's in and was the main reason I finished watching the movie.