Liebe im Handumdrehen

...then you ought to rent this movie. She is just adorable, and charming beyond belief, as avowed gold-digger Regi Allen. All the supporting players here are wonderful. However, male lead Fred MacMurray comes off -- at least to me -- as a very cold fish. His endless "humorous" comments have an angry undercurrent, and the script, while admitting the guy is very shallow (shallow, angry -- sounds like a keeper), also insists he's this wacky dreamboat.

When you get down to it, all he has to offer Regi over the love-struck, crippled Allen Macklyn (Ralph Bellamy, playing what I think is the first of his many second male leads dumped by the leading lady for the first male lead) is that he can walk.

"Hands Across the Table" is a sparkling and enjoyable screwball romance, directed with an airy grace by the underrated Paramount stylist Mitchell Leisen, whose "Easy Living"(1937) and "Swing High, Swing Low"(1937) are two of the greatest classics of the 1930s. "Hands" is a minor work to be sure, but it is enjoyable and worthwhile for showcasing the comedic talents of Carole Lombard as the gold-digging manicurist who falls for a former millionaire playboy, played by Fred MacMurray. Ralph Bellamy plays Lombard's rejected suitor, a role that somehow prefigures his role in Hawks' "His Girl Friday".

Once again Ralph Bellamy plays the sad sack role, and here he has the added burden of not being able to walk. Robert Osborne called this role a "Ralph Bellamy" role and who more perfect for the ignored/dumped love interest than he? He is infatuated with hotel manicurist Lombard (sparkling as always) and is rich into the bargain. However, she falls for playboy MacMurray, whose family has lost its money, and who is looking to marry into it so he can continue his aimless yet pampered existence. Lombard wants to marry money, too, but curiously overlooks puppy-eyed Bellamy in this regard. The plot involves MacMurray missing the boat he is taking to Bermuda while his fiancée's family plan the wedding. He misses the boat due to a zany night out with Lombard and ends up needing to board with her for the week so his fiancée thinks he's in Bermuda. The usual falling-in-love-despite-themselves ensues.

This is called a screwball comedy, but I found it more sad than comical, especially with the character Bellamy plays. MacMurray has no sex appeal for me despite workable chemistry with Lombard. I cannot help but picture the pipe-puffing, cardigan-wearing dad, Steve Douglas, on "My Three Sons," and how utterly dopey he looks works against his being taken seriously as a sexy guy. No one has yet mentioned that William Demarest, who later played Uncle Charley on "My Three Sons" with MacMurray, shows up as a suitor to take Lombard out who gets cosmetically chased away by MacMurray in one of the funnier scenes in the film.

Tragic Marie Prevost plays Lombard's manicurist pal Nona. I thought she had a fine comedic presence, and it's a shame she didn't go on to more best-friend, Patsy Kelly type roles.

I don't think this is one of Lombard's best but not a complete waste of time. Not as zany or fantastic as "My Man Godfrey" but watchable nonetheless.

On top of being a huge fan of classic film for goodness knows how long, my main reason for seeing 'Hands Across the Table' was Carole Lombard. A lovely and always well worth watching actress who died tragically, in one of the worst and most tragic ways to die, far too young with so much more to give. It is always interesting too to see older films with a mix of comedy and romance.

'Hands Across the Table' is another one of Lombard's four (too few as they worked so well together) teamings with Fred MacMurray, in fact it was actually their first. The others being 'The Princess Comes Across', 'True Confession' and 'Swing High, Swing Low'. Of the four, 'Hands Across the Table' gets my vote as the best of them. Although the other three had much to enjoy without being flawless of course, this, while not perfect, was on the most part an utter delight. It may not be quite one of the greatest screwball comedies, but it certainly shows why witty and sophisticated comedy appeals to me so much and does it with class and charm.

Maybe it does get a little over-serious towards the end and it slows down slightly at this point, but there is very little at all to criticise with 'Hands Across the Table'.

The good things are a great many, and in terms of quantity they are absolutely great. 'Hands Across the Table' is a great looking film, it's sumptuously shot with beautiful costumes and the camera clearly loves Lombard. The music fits amiably and doesn't sound stock or at odds with the film. Mitchell Leisen directs with a very light and sure-footed touch that stops 'Hands Across the Table' from getting too heavy.

Absolutely loved the script, which sparkles in its wit and the sophistication is elegance personified, nothing distasteful or vulgar here. The story is a slight one with not many surprises perhaps, but it is adroitly paced and never less than charming and sweet without being cloying. The ending is really quite beautiful and packs a punch.

Lombard expectedly is wonderful, exuding glamour and enjoying herself to the hilt, her trademark zaniness and delicacy perfectly captured. MacMurray is in an early role here and for me he did have good comic timing and avoided playing the role too heavily or overly-seriously, even if became more comfortable and even more assured in his later films and in his later outings with Lombard. Their romantic chemistry works a charm and is more than believable throughout. The supporting cast are just as strong, Ralph Bellamy and Ruth Donnelly marvellous.

In conclusion, a lovely, delightful film and treats for admirers of Lombard. 8/10

Carole Lombard was one of Hollywood's finest comediennes; she worked best when she was backed by an equally strong male lead – in this case, it's Fred MacMurray, with whom she must have clicked because they appeared together three more times (two of these films, THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS [1936] and TRUE CONFESSION [1937], are also included in Universal's 2-Disc Lombard collection and I should get to them in the next couple of days).

The comic style of the film falls somewhere between sophisticated and screwball: lavish settings and stuffy aristocratic characters are mingled with the often zany working-class (keeping their chin up during the Depression but, in Lombard's case, harboring a desire to marry into money); the title refers to her job as a manicurist. Typically for this type of film, when she sets her eyes on a gentleman of title – who's young and handsome to boot (MacMurray) – he turns out to be engaged to an even wealthier lady (Astrid Allwyn), because he's himself penniless! Running after her (the term is put lightly here, since he's actually wheelchair-bound) is an ex-air ace played by the actor who cornered the market around this time in "Other Man" roles, Ralph Bellamy, who's naturally got a lot of money and thinks of Lombard as a perfect match – but his love goes unrequited.

The mixture includes slapstick, wisecracks, romance, drama and even a bit of sentimentality (Lombard spends a good part of the last act sobbing). Still, as always in these more innocent times (where, for instance, a woman has to turn around when the man she's living with – albeit platonically, for the moment – is about to wear his pants!), none of the characters are really unsympathetic…so that we don't even despise the jilted lovers, who are understanding enough to know when to give up. The ending of the film is a classic: Lombard and MacMurray cause a traffic jam to look for a missing penny on which they've staked the course of their future! Appearing in one scene as a prospective boyfriend of Lombard's (whom MacMurray scares away) is future Preston Sturges regular William Demarest.

The film was shown in the early 1990s on late-night Italian TV in its original language with forced Italian subtitles, but I had missed it (the same thing is true for the afore-mentioned THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS and MacMurray's other film with Leisen – TAKE A LETTER, DARLING [1942]); I did, however, acquire some of the director's other great work this way – most of which is, regrettably, still unavailable on DVD...