She Couldn't Take It

In the 1930s, there were an awful lot of films about kooky families and the rich husbands who were exasperated trying to deal with them. The most famous (and best) of these was "My Man Godfrey" but there were many more. Two actors who made quite a few of these were Billy Burke and Walter Connelly...and they're both in this film. However, despite all the similarities, this one has a lot of differences...and there's a lot of reason to see it even if you think you've seen them all.

When the film begins, Daniel Van Dyke (Connelly) is at his wits end with his awful adult children and wife. They spend money like it grows on trees and are constantly embarrassing themselves in the press. However, Daniel has a way out. This rich businessman happens to be headed to prison for the next five years and it seems like a real relief!

While in prison, Daniel meets Spot Ricardi, a very famous mobster who made his fortune bootlegging. The two become fast friends and Daniel really admires Ricardi because Ricardi is a real man and wouldn't put up with his family doing the sort of crap the Van Dykes were doing! Because of this, when Daniel becomes deathly ill he does something wild...he appoints Ricardi as his executor and trustee. Now, with Ricardi getting out of prison in a few days he'll be able to tell the family to tow the line...or else they'll be cut off without a dime! And, that's exactly what Ricardi does...though Daniel's very hot- headed and foolish daughter (Joan Bennet) decides to come up with a plan to FORCE Ricardi to give her money...and boy, what a stupid plan it turns out to be! It's so stupid that it's up to Ricardi to come to her rescue!

This film definitely surprised me several times--not only with the plot but with some of the casting. Imagine having Donald Meek (a guy who lived up to his name and almost always played wimpy sorts of guys) playing a gangster who says "Give him to me...I wanna try out my new gun"! All in all, a fun and very enjoyable film...one that currently has been posted on YouTube.

She couldn't Take It is a sluggish screwball displaying the fair comic talent of Joan Bennett and the bad timing of George Raft. It has a nice Paramount gloss but is vapid in comparison to the sharper play of Loy and Powell, Lombard and Barrymore.

The Van Dykes are the Kardashians of their time, tawdry upper crusts with media's nose up it's anus. Patriarch Daniel Van Dyke has had enough of his kids' and wife's front page shenanigans but ends up in prison doing time where he is befriended by mobster Mo Ricardi (Raft). When Dan Van Dyke is facing his maker in prison he appoints Ricardi the trustee of his vast fortune. Tough love ensues.

Bennet is a fine actress (Scarlet St.) but she is no Lombard in this and Raft looking sharper than anyone of his day about to sabotage his career is as stiff as four day road kill as the questionable Italian slur.

It is left up to a stalwart supporting guest of a touching Walter Connaly the birdbrained but always charming Billie Burke, a pompous ass thespian played by Alan Mowbray and tragicomic turn from Wallace Ford that is disturbing to screwball.

Tay Garnet's direction lags and the film trades along with with little to no comic or romantic punch. Stars that Bennet and Raft might be of the time She Couldn't Take It remains minor league screwball.

Because this a blend of the gangster and screwball comedy genres George Raft's gangster persona fit s well in She Couldn't Take It. Raft is an imprisoned bootlegger who plans to go straight when he's out.

While in the joint he meets Walter Connolly, tycoon doing a stretch for some white collar crime who has a ditzy family consisting of Billie Burke and children Joan Bennett and James Blakeley. While Connolly does his stretch the wife and kids are making headlines with one madcap bit of lunacy after another.

What Connolly does as he is dying in prison is make Raft the trustee of his estate and kee[er of the purse strings. The family has to learn to live with it.

Some of his old gangster pals seeing a chance to collect try a kidnapping of Joan Bennett. I thin you see where this is going.

Besides Raft the rest of the film is cast nicely. Standing out among the rest are Lloyd Nolan as the creator of the kidnap scheme and Wallace Ford as Raft's luckless sidekick.

Although Joan Bennett is fine in her part as the spoiled heiress, the role really cries for Carole Lombard. Still She Couldn't Take it is a nice example of blended genre.

Walter Connolly's dizzy family is driving him crazy, so when the Feds go after him for tax evasion, he decides it will be a nice vacation from wife Billie Burke and children Joan Bennett and James Blakeley. In prison, he meets up with bootlegger George Raft, who is looking forward to getting out and going straight. When Connolly is dying of a heart attack, he rewrites his will, putting Raft in charge of his estate, to "unspoil" his family. Sparks fly, and after Raft breaks up an impending marriage between Miss Bennett and quote-spouting actor Alan Mowbray, Miss Bennett decides to get her hands on the estate's money by having herself kidnapped by Raft's ex-gang.

Raft is pretty good in this comedy, far more relaxed in his movements and natural in his line delivery than usual. The others in this cast perform very well under the direction of Tay Garnett, especially Wallace Ford in a supporting role as Raft's henchman who can't figure out how to get out of a Chinese Finger Torture. The chemistry between Raft and Miss Bennett is excellent.

Although the final twenty minutes seems a bit rote as the plot turns serious, for most of its length it's a strong screwball comedy.

Some things never change, and "She Couldn't Take It" proves we'll always have the idle rich stealing the media spotlight with their idiotic antics. Here we have a pleasing '30s comedy with witty characterizations, nifty dialogue and lots of action. And forget about the tendency of screwball romantic comedies to never allow anything truly bad to happen along the way. We are dealing with gangsters here, after all. Dizzy blonde heiress Carol Van Dyke (Joan Bennett) throws her father's money about freely in a string of attention-seeking exploits, engagements and arrests. Give her a Chihuahua, and she'd be Paris Hilton. Her drunken brother is just as bad, and her mother is the worst of the lot. Their ill father Daniel Van Dyke (Walter Connolly) is actually relieved to be sent to prison on tax evasion in order to get some rest. There, he is sought out by former beer runner Ricardi, who is interested in Dan's business skills but disappointed to find the man such a marshmallow for his out-of-hand family. Ricardi freely offers him advice to rein them in, including smacking the wife in the kisser. On his death bed, Dan coaxes Ricardi, who is about to be released, into accepting the position of trustee to put a leash on the family. It is culture shock for Ricardi, who is determined to turn his life around, and his pal Boston (Wallace Ford). And his main problem is getting Carol under his thumb as she goes to drastic measures to get her own way. The cast is spot on across the board. Bennett takes on the bratty blonde persona surprisingly well. Connolly is excellent, taking his trademark flustered executive in a new direction. Billie Burke, as his wife, really does deserve to smacked in the mouth for her coquettish viciousness. Alan Mowbray is ham perfected as Carol's actor fiancé whose conversation is made up entirely of quotations. He even aims "Julius Caesar"'s "I would rather be a dog, and bay the moon, than such a Roman" at Raft. And, amusingly, Raft gets a chance to spoof him. The movie does belong to Raft, who is quite a kick here and rather self-revealing. Much of the script, in fact, seems constructed around him and exaggerating his real background, with Ricardi being cruelly referred to as a West Side criminal and a "cheap Hell's Kitchen butcher." The scenario of a man with a poverty-stricken, shady background being thrust among the upper crust has a real feel to it because of him. There are actual moments of character development here. Director Tay Garnett shows a nice touch for screwball comedy, even when incorporating murder into the mix. He nicely bookends the story with high-speed cop chases. On that score, there is no real respect for law enforcement, with the cops being mainly buffoons, surely a sign of the times.