The Gay Deception

Try to tell me Wyler wasn't inspired by Ernst Lubitsch. Go on, say it. If this had starred Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald instead of Francis Lederer and Frances Dee, it'd easily pass for one of Lubitsch's films of the Pre-Code era. It's the story of a suave, European womanizer who falls in love with a largely unassuming American woman with touches of farcical mistaken identity on top. That it doesn't entertain quite as much as The Good Fairy is unfortunate, but The Good Fairy was just great. The Gay Deception is a lighter, less emotionally satisfying confection, but still a small delight of a film that resembles Lubitsch's So This is Paris.

Mirabel Miller (Dee) is a worker bee at a small firm in Greenville, NY with dreams of saving up her money for a fashionable hat, a symbol of living large and having a good time (it was the Depression, so this is obviously wish-fulfillment for the audience pretty much from the get go). She wins a lottery of $5,000 and decides that she's going to go to New York City to spend it all and enjoy herself, even if only for a month. So, she shows up at the Walsdorf Plaza with management thinking that she's some kind of melon magnate's daughter. One of the employees of the hotel is a bellboy named Sandro (Lederer). He's unconcerned with the rules of punctuality and happily backtalks to his superior regularly. He shows up in rooms being made up and just asks to watch the process of making the bed. He's an odd duck, and the talk of the hotel staff.

When Mirabel shows up to the Plaza, Sandro is one of the bellboys assigned to help take her things up to her room, and he continues his pattern of insubordination by sticking around, gently ribbing her when he watches her bouncing on her bed, and criticizing the style of her expensive $20 hat, all in front of a superior who cheerfully fires him in the elevator down.

Sandro's secret, though, is that he's actually Prince Alessandro of the country Alessandro. The Consul-General Semanek (Lennox Pawle) is convinced that the Prince is on a trans-Atlantic ship at that moment, due to dock in a couple of days, and he's in with some nefarious gangster characters for...some reason. I guess it got explained in one line of dialogue, but it's really just an excuse for Semanek to feel panic at Alessandro's not being on the ship. His life is somehow tied up in it. It's enough for the situation, but it's still thin. Alessandro snuck over early, though, because he has some inclination to get into the hotel business, and he had decided to use the Walsdorf Plaza as an example to learn the business. Sure, why not?

The meat of it, though, is the burgeoning relationship between Alessandra, continuing his façade as a working man by getting new jobs at the hotel every time he gets fired (he gets fired a few times to increasingly comic results), and Mirabel who is both attracted to and annoyed by this foreign guy who keeps trying to order for her (like telling her to order a martini when he's a waiter, she insists on something sweet, he brings her a martini despite her protestations, she enjoys the drink, and he smiles because he won). When he gets fired for the final time, he takes her out to dinner at a small Italian restaurant where he gets seen by the two toughs running Semanek, and Semanek sends some people down there to pick him up, to try and mask his identity, forcing Alessandro to abandon Mirabel at the restaurant.

The finale of the film is around a large society dinner at the hotel, run by a snooty lady that revels at the opportunity to invite Mirabel but also insult her because she's obviously not of her class. Alessandro sees through it, and he offers himself in his true identity up as her guest. She resists because he hurt her, and she also doesn't believe him. What makes this whole thing entertaining is a ticking clock element (Semanek and the two toughs are coming to investigate the rumor of Alessandro in New York before the boat) along with the fact that Alessandro snuck in, stealing bits of clothing from other guests in the laundry, to make his entrance.

It's all light and airy and amusing as it plays out. There's just enough character built into it around Mirabel and Alessandro so that their romance feels believable. The minor characters are broadly drawn and fun to watch, especially Pawle as Semanek in his most fearful moments when his hair gets crazed. Lederer is charming as Alessandro, fun to watch as he floats through almost every scene and situation. Dee is fine as Mirabel, pretty much the straight man of the comedic series of setups.

The characters are perhaps too thin for any real emotional connection, and the comic situations are occasionally too contrived to really hit either. However, as a whole, the film is a light treat of comedy from William Wyler in the early days of the Hays Code.

What a wonderful old film. This old flick moves along at a intelligent pace with wit and timing throughout. For a movie over 70 years old, the dialog is smart with no over-acting to be found anywhere. The interplay between Francis Lederer and Frances Dee is humorous, mature and completely entertaining. The story is not complicated, but the pace and writing carry it along fine.

What Hollywood would do with a re-make of this God only knows, but it would be well worth a try. Until then, I highly recommend The Gay Deception. Seek this movie out and you will not be sorry.

14 out of 14. (See the movie and you'll understand)

When office worker "Mirabel" (Frances Dee) scoops $5,000 in the state lottery, she decides to ignore the bank manager's advice to invest and heads to New York for a luxury stay. She is suitably fêted by the hotel staff, but soon finds her trip to this metropolis where she knows nobody a bit lonely. The only friend she seems to make is the elevator boy (Francis Lederer). He notices that she's not having the best time and determines to make her feel better. Thing is, he has a bit of a secret to keep and though that could ultimately help their budding romance, he needs to keep it for now and that's where their problems start. It's all a little predictable, sure, but there is quite an engaging effort from Lederer (and he resists any temptation to burst into song) and there are a few swipes at the posh, pompous and supercilious amongst the so-called glittering society types who couldn't spot a prince from a porcupine. "The customer is always right!"? Who ever came up with that stupid policy?

Fun romp with dashing Francis Lederer and lovely Frances Dee.

This is the kind of screwball movie that Hollywood can never make again. We have become too jaded, too complicated, too sophisticated.

You know the ending way before it comes, but the ride is full of smiles and giggles and silly surprises that will make your insides gurgle with joy and harken you gently into a more innocent time.

William Wyler's direction is nearly flawless. He wasn't Bette Davis' favorite director for nothing. It seems that he could do most anything.

Also, watch for the wonderfully goofy Lennox Pawle, stately Alan Mowbray and instantly recognizable Akim Tamiroff in one of the many roles that made their faces well-known but not necessarily their identities household names.

Sit back and take it in. Smile. You deserve it.

With 20th Century Fox swallowed up by that corporate piranha, Disney, I have a feeling many of these Fox films will be lost to viewing, since I assume Disney wants to hide these in a vault and promote their own stuff. So I've decided to use a list to see some films I haven't gotten to yet.

Frances Dee and Francis Lederer star in "The Gay Deception" from 1935. People would get another idea of this title were it made today. The beautiful, wide-eyed Mirabel (Dee) comes from a town where casaba melons are grown. She wants to let loose and live, but she has to make a living. Then she wins $5000 in a lottery.

The bank tells her that at 4% interest, she can make $3.85 a week. Mirabel is not interested. She wants the money in cash and is determined to have a blast for as long as the money lasts.

According to my research, despite admonitions by the bank manager, that would be quite a while. $5000 in 1935 buys $100,000 of goods and services today. With French hats costing $19.95 and hotel suites back them costing something like $32/day, Mirabel's money will go far even in NYC.

Mirabel takes the Peach Blossom suite at the Walsdorf Astoria Hotel. She arrives with tons of luggage filled with gowns, hats, and furs. However, she is constantly hounded by a bellboy named Sandro (Lederer) who advises her on what to drink, what to order, and where to go, and she hates it and him.

He drives her crazy, but she eventually has to admit to herself she's having a rotten time. She's alone, ignored by the famous society deb in the next suite, and there's a huge ball coming up, and she's not invited.

Sandro promises that she will attend the ball, and with a prince.

One of those light, sophisticated comedies that we won't see again, reminiscent of another favorite of mine, Cafe Metropole. Surprisingly, William Wyler directed, and it's a shame he didn't do more of this type of film.

Both of the stars had interesting -- and long lives.

In 1929, Francis Lederer made "Pandora's Box" in Germany starring Louise Brooks. He couldn't speak English, and she couldn't speak German. Fortunately it was silent. Here he is in 1935 speaking English impeccably and giving a marvelous performance.

Irving Thalberg intended to make him a huge star, but with Thalberg's death, Lederer failed to make Clark Gable status. He worked until 1971 and then opened an acting school; the week of his death, at 100, he was still teaching.

Frances Dee was pregnant with Jody McCrea with her husband Joel when this film was made; two more children followed, the last one in 1955. She stopped working in the '50s with no regrets. She was married to McCrea until his death in 1990.

Some trivia: Selznick considered casting Dee as Melanie Wilkes, but backed off when he thought that her beauty might overshadow newcomer Vivien Leigh. DeHavilland's beauty was more placid; described by James Agee as "one of the very few women in movies who really had a face...and always used this translucent face with delicate and exciting talent," Dee lived until age 94.