The Goose and the Gander

The best thing about this romantic comedy is how good it looks thanks to cinematographer Sidney Hickok. This 1935 but the interior scenes look like they were shot in the 1950's. Hickok was a brilliant cinematographer whose career began in the silents and he would go on to shoot such films as The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, To Have and Have Not, A slight Case of Murder, Gentleman Jim and the sci-fi classic Them. Charles Kenyon wrote the story and the screenplay about a woman who overhears the woman who stole away her husband planning a weekend affair with another man so she hatches an elaborate plan to embarrass the woman and her ex by diverting the cheating couple to her home and getting her ex to come over to catch them. Another couple who are jewel thieves are inadvertently lured into her trap and things start getting complicated. It's a good story and a good cast with Kay Francis, George Bret, Genevieve Tobin, John Eldredge, Claire Dodd, Ralph Forbes, William Austin and Helen Lowell. With the rampant infidelity theme this story was probably written with pre-code Hollywood in mind but with the code going into effect the year before it's release it was filmed as a little less salacious. Alfred E. Green who would make such films as The Jolson Story and The Jackie Robinson Story directs. it's a fun little film and I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.

After Kay Francis retired from films, she was recognized. "Aren't you Kay Francis?" someone asked. She answered, "I was."

Certainly no one had risen higher than Francis and had stuck it out, even when Warners filled her scripts with words that had 'r' in them to play up her speech impediment, and even when she could only get roles at studios like Monogram and Republic. Tough isn't the word.

Here she's at the height of her career, very glamorous, in "The Goose and the Gander," from 1935. Besides Francis, the film features George Brent, Geraldine Tobin, John Eldredge, and Claire Dodd.

At a party, Georgiana (Francis), whose husband left her for another woman, overhears that woman (Tobin) planning a weekend affair with another man (Brent).

Georgiana puts together an complicated plot whereby the cheaters wind up at her house, and her ex comes over and catches them. The situation that brought them to her house (too complex to go into - it concerns no gas and a quarantine) brings another couple to her door - jewel thieves!

As others have pointed out, this was probably written during the precode era and rewritten to meet the Code. The only thing that confused me is that Brent and Tobin were going to spend the weekend together and present themselves to Georgiana as a married couple. So she naturally puts them in one bedroom. Tobin has a fit and forces Brent out onto the roof! What were they planning on doing on this weekend? Play cards? It made no sense, even though it was funny.

Very cute comedy, and Brent looks quite handsome. Nice to see Francis in something besides a turgid melodrama. She not only suffered well, but she had a nice comedic style.

Delightful comedy in which Kay Francis is a divorcee who devises a cunning plot to get her ex husband back from his new wife (Genevive Tobin) whom she overhears planning a rendezvous with another man (George Brent). Things get very complicated and several people end up pretending to be someone else, including a couple of jewel thieves. With all the complications, imposters etc, this film reminds me a bit of a story by P.G. Wodehouse, his books were always rich with imposters, and he had more than one jewel thieving couple. He could have written this entertaining tale, it even has a formidable elderly aunt (Helen Lowell). Great fun.

... And a shining example of how to do precode in the production code era. Georgiana (Kay Francis) is vacationing at a seaside resort. She accidentally overhears Bob McNear (George Brent) and Betty (Genevieve Tobin) planning a rendezvous. It's actually Betty planning one, as she wants to get one over on her husband. She's in love with the idea, not with Bob. Georgiana is amused by this conversation but doesn't think anything more of it since she doesn't know these people until she later runs into her ex-husband, Ralph (Ralph Forbes), in the resort ballroom that night. He is happy to see her, says he regrets divorcing her two years before, and points out his current wife, across the room, who broke up the marriage. It turns out that this current wife is Betty!

So Georgiana gets an idea. She will fix it so that Betty and Bob wind up in the same place that her ex-husband Ralph does, showing Betty up for what she is, and thus getting Ralph back. Like Betty, she is in love with the idea not the man. How she goes about arranging this is very creative and funny.

So, this movie might have been less fun with Georgiana the only one in the complete know for the entire film, so a couple of jewel thieves are inserted into all of this who also wind up at Betty and Bob's destination, with Georgiana having no idea who they are and what they are doing there. Meanwhile Bob and Georgiana, previously just mildly infatuated, begin to develop real feelings for one another.

So many romantic comedies did everything wrong when their wings were clipped by the production code. This one is almost perfect by being genuinely funny and implying things right up to the edge of what was allowed at the time. The cast is perfect. Brent and Francis always had great chemistry, Tobin is delightfully wicked in a harmless kind of way if that is possible, Forbes is clueless as Georgiana's first husband - a real stuffed shirt, and honorable mention has to go to William Austin in a very small but memorable role as Ralph's brother. He manages to be, in every way possible, a completely unappealing man. I'd highly recommend this one.

This is the best of the Kay Francis vehicles, and I had never heard of it before a couple days ago.

Kay is stylish, George Brent actually looks handsome. And there is a real plot, not just cutesy and/or tear-jerking posturing.

Married couples, formerly married couples. And -- a couple who are jewel thieves.

It zings along and is great, amusing, romantic fun.