Bette Davis made too few film comedies. The only ones that come to mind are this film, THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D., THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, JUNE BRIDE, ALL ABOUT EVE (yes, it is actually a witty comedy), and POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES. There probably are others that have slipped my mind. In MR. SKEFFINGTON, Fanny does have a flibbertigibbet type of character, frequently breaking off luncheon dates with an unseen female friend, and annoying people with her selfish problems (the scene with George Coulouris as Dr. Byles is hysterical for his justifiable explosion). But most of the film is serious about her mistreatment of the loving Job Skeffington. Of the comedies I listed, ALL ABOUT EVE and JUNE BRIDE are best for script and performance highlights for Davis. Monty Wooley, Mary Wickes, Jimmy Durante, and Anne Sheridan are far funnier in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. The comics who control POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES are Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, and (best of all) Peter Falk. THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. is Davis's best film with Warner Brothers co-superstar Jimmy Cagney, and it is her best piece of slapstick - but she hated it because she spent several scenes removing cactus needles from her rear end (literally).
IT'S LOVE I'M AFTER is very funny, but it is also interesting as the last film Davis did with Leslie Howard. They had been together in her first great dramatic hit, OF HUMAN BONDAGE, and then had played the tragic, late blooming lovers, in THE PETRIFIED FOREST. This is their only comedy after all the earlier tragedy (Davis dies in BONDAGE, and Howard is gunned down by Humphrey Bogart in FOREST). The three films should be shown together by some film society.
They play a famous "Lunt and Fontaine" or "Southern and Marlowe" acting pair from the stage, who can't keep their egos from constantly clashing. Davis, at the start of the film, is performing a love scene with Howard, and has taken the trouble to eat onions (lots of 'em) before they go on. He goes through the scene without revealing how he detests her (at present) though he manages to whisper to her his true feelings. Only one year earlier Howard had played Romeo in M.G.M.'s production of the Shakespeare play, with Norma Shearer as Juliet. Many critics felt that Howard and Shearer, no matter how well they emoted, were too old for the parts (which call for teenage types). I defy you to even accept their performances in the balcony scene, etc., after seeing Howard and Davis in this film.
Due to the script, Davis disappears for too many scenes, while Howard has to try to undue the schoolgirl crush of Olivia de Havilland. He does this, assisted by Eric Blore, by being boorish and demanding at the home of de Havilland's father, George Barbier. It does not work according to every plan Howard hatches, although de Havilland does managed to lose interest in him at the end (with the aid of Davis, and Howard's pompous ego). The film works pretty well as a comedy. May I recommend the sequence involving Blore trying to give a signal to his boss, and finding himself at war with some birds. Leslie was quite good in the film, but Eric was ... well Eric Blore was always the dependable comic actor.
