Love a la Mode

"Love a la Mode" is an early sound comedy starring a lot of folks you've probably never heard of nor have seen in any movies. It has its moments but it also suffers a bit from some bad cliches

The setting is a posh party at some mansion. Mr. Saunders wants time with his girlfriend so he can propose to her, but her bratty younger sister is always getting in the way. When a bond salesman arrives, Saunders convinces him to woo the sister. If he agrees and keeps her away, Saunders promises to buy a fortune in bonds.

Despite the agreement, the salesman instead tries to woo the faincee to be...and Saunders is naturally angry about this. At the same time, the bond salesman's wife shows up...and is NOT happy about him spending time with another woman.

This set-up is pretty funny and should have worked well. But a few really limp jokes interfered. One was a completely unfunny bit about folks eating alum. Another is the wet paint gag...which has been overused. But the worst is the ending, where the bond salesman's wife starts wildly shooting a gun. This is an OLD bit...made popular in the 1910s by the Mack Sennett films. But by 1930, it was considered passe and unfunny. As a result, the film could have been better but fails in being a must-see movie.

It's a well-timed comedy under the direction of Stephen Roberts, in which Clem Beauchamp and Bernard Granville are variously married and trying to get married to the same two women.

It shows some hesitancy in a manner which indicates to me that there are some sound issues. It's 1930, after all, and although there had already been some success in shooting sound films outdoors rather than on a set, the expertise in doing so was still limited. Still, it's good to see the players, like Beauchamp. He would stop appearing on the screen about 1935, and go behind the camera, as a producer and production manager. In the last role he would work for Stanley Kramer. He died in 1992, aged 94.