By Candlelight

This is a straight comedy of errors type of thing which although some of its humour is still funny and it's is expertly put together, it's nothing special but still a good example of early thirties middle of the road comedy.

The problem with this is that you've got to like the characters to enjoy this fully but they're just not made relatable enough. Your main man here that you're watching is Paul Lukas and once you get it in your head that he sounds just like Bela Lugosi and looks Dracula in HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA you can't warm easily to him. There's actually a scene where he kisses 'Marie's' neck commenting on her perfect throat......there must have been some funny outtakes from that shoot!

But back to the review..... James Whale's direction makes this feel genuine, as though they're real people. It looks classy and paces itself just right. The characters however seem a little distant and the lead (Dracula audition Hopeful?) is dishonest and a liar so not very likeable. Unusually for a James Whale film but it just doesn't have any magic. And the score is weirdly overpowering. Universal must have been getting their money's worth from the orchestra - it never stops. Were they just showing off to their competitors that they can now afford an orchestra by using it over every single second of your picture.

Yes! There is nothing funnier than infidelity, except maybe...ummm... Everything. Infidelity seems to have been Hollywood's favorite topic from the time movies could be made. I think they had squeezed every drop out of that topic by 1933 to the point it didn't interest me at all anymore.

Within the first fifteen minutes Count von Rischenheim (Lawrence Grant) was at the home of Prince Alfred (Nils Asther) trying to find his wife (Dorothy Revier) as she hid in the other room; all the while the butler, Josef (Paul Lukas), tried to help his boss to keep the woman hidden.

Later, when the butler, Josef, was on a train he met a woman named Marie (Elissa Landi). Josef pretended to be a prince while Marie pretended to be a married lady (by lady I mean a woman of high class). Josef didn't care a bit that she was "married," he still wanted her.

From the train ride on until I turned off this dreadful movie, Josef and Marie catted around. Besides the whole ordeal being terrible unfunny as they pretended to be something they weren't, the intrusive musical soundtrack ruined whatever wasn't already ruined by the script. It was a comical soundtrack as if I was watching a folly, and they didn't know when to stop playing the music.

Free on YouTube.

Robert Wyler was a director for Universal whom Laemmle Jr. had promoted; and he had a familial connection. Robert Wyler's maternal grandmother was a first cousin of Universal owner, Carl Laemmle.

There had been turn downs by Wyler, Whale getting the assignments instead, and also cases in which Wyler had failed to be able to make a satisfactory start, and then Whale was asked to continue them.

'By Candlelight' was one of those latter cases.

It had been very successful a few years earlier as a British stage play. Because Whale had already turned down some efforts by Robert Wyler, who did not have the talent to direct, he was nearly forced to take on the film. Perhaps it was a matter of discretion over valor. In the end, he took it on.

He took Ted Kent, his favorite cutter, and the then competent John Mescall as the camera director. Whale started the film over from the beginning.

He filmed the script as it was for the most part, but he also made a game of it, putting in his own special tricks of the trade.

Carl Laemmle was very happy with the result. He liked the film himself, and it brought in good money just in the nick of time to help save the studio once more, adding some good revenue to the spectacular revenues from Whale's 'The Invisible Man' which were then really piling up.

Whale had a contract offer from Paramount as director. He was very actively considering it, but wasn't sure of LeBaron's own firmness in the position of producer; it was LeBaron's offer.

Laemmle offered Whale both a set of raises to automatically kick in, and producer's credit even though Whale would not actually be the producer.

And it's a good thing for us that Whale took Laemmle's offer, or we'd not have had 'Bride of Frankenstein' or 'Show Boat'.

But I'll always wonder what would have become of Whale's career had he taken LeBaron's offer to come and direct at a really powerful studio, which could have offered him some of the best talent, actors, writers and crew, in the world.

... and I do not know why the folks at Universal don't do more to get treasures such as these out to the public, at least using the manufactured on demand method that Warner Brothers and MGM/UA are using.

This is one of the sophisticated precodes revolving around a series of mistaken identities and misrepresentations. The basic plot is that Josef (Paul Lukas) is butler to the carousing Prince Alfred von Rommer (Nils Asther). Josef helps the prince whenever he gets in a tight spot with one of his many lady friends - with that tight spot primarily consisting of protests and threats being raised by one of the ladies' husbands popping up unexpectedly. After one such episode the prince decides to take a vacation in Monte Carlo and he sends Josef on ahead with the luggage. On the train Josef notices an attractive young lady (Elissa Landi) and tries to make a play for her himself. He is only modestly successful until the young woman sees Josef's luggage and notices the prince's coat of arms. Now Josef has to pretend to be the prince in order to continue courting the lady. What happens when the real prince arrives? Is the young lady who she seems to be? Will those angry husbands now be after Josef since he has taken the prince's identity? Watch and find out.

The main negative in this film is the casting of Paul Lukas as Josef. This time it is not his accent that is the problem but his age. It is a bit of a stretch to believe that a man in his 40's would have such wide-eyed hero worship for the younger prince and his philandering ways. Nils Asther as the prince gives a charming and effortless performance, behaving genuinely amused at the uncomfortable situations in which he is placed. Like Lukas, Asther also had a heavy accent, and that and a contract dispute pretty much finished his acting career shortly after this film was made.

Highly recommended as one of the great sophisticated precodes, although you probably won't be able to find a good print of it. I know I haven't been able to find one yet.

This is a well-regarded minor Whale effort which, like REMEMBER LAST NIGHT? (1935) finds him in fine form tackling sophisticated comedy – though it eschews the zaniness which would mark that film; indeed, this is very much in the Lubitsch style and class!

That said, it was criticized for Paul Lukas' central miscasting but I felt he acquitted himself reasonably well under the circumstances. He plays butler to Nils Asther's suave Prince: asked to precede him on a journey, he is mistaken for the real thing when running into charming Elissa Landi (also traveling incognito above her station!) on a train. The two start a hesitant romance, since each is wary of being exposed; the situation is further complicated when the womanizing Asther catches Lukas at his game in his own house. He is willing to play along and assumes the butler's responsibilities, only he has his eyes on Landi too, who in turn is naturally insulted by his impudence! Incidentally, the title is a reference to Asther's recurring trick for seducing the ladies – pretending that the electricity has gone out and having Lukas set up a romantic candle-lit mood (the Prince, then, is happy to oblige his butler during the latter's own affair)!

The mistaken identity ruse (obviously smoothed by the end) has been a staple in the romantic comedy genre, but Whale handles it with tremendous flair and dexterity. Getting back to Lubitsch and his renowned 'touch', we get an ingenious example of it here: Asther is entertaining the opera singer wife of an aristocrat who, breaking into his house, believes he can hear her voice in the next room…but when he steps inside is met with a gramophone playing one of her arias!; still not satisfied, he asks the Prince if he can call her at their home and Asther offers to do it himself – proceeding to connect the phone to a secondary line elsewhere in the house! By the way, what I said about the re-use of sets (and, for that matter, succinctness – since this runs for just 68 minutes) from one film to the other in my review of Whale's THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR (1933) applies here as well: both Asther's house and that of Landi's masters were already seen in that very picture (with the all-important mirror, also featured in the director's FRANKENSTEIN [1931], intact)!

Again, though, the print I acquired is far from optimal – being exceedingly soft and once more (briefly) boasting fluctuating audio. With this in mind, a DVD set through Criterion's sister label Eclipse – compiling Whale's most notable non-horror work (given that the company is on good terms with Universal anyway) – would be a veritable treat, especially for somebody not yet familiar with gems such as this one...