The Goose and the Gander

Don't let the first ten minutes put you off. You might get the impression that it's going to be a stuffy drawing room comedy about people you're not going to like but you'd be wrong - it becomes an engaging and genuinely funny old fashioned farce.

The biggest revelation this picture gives you is that men's swimwear in the 30s was insanely ridiculous. The second revelation is that Kay Francis' dress could only exist in a world where gravity didn't exist - logically that shouldn't stay up! All that aside, this film after a slow start eventually turns into a charming silly comedy in the same vein as TOP HAT.

We've got a bunch of people stranded in a country house swapping bedrooms with the wrong partners, plots to break up a marriage, plots to save a marriage, plots to bring two people together, plots to steal diamonds and.... well it's not that important, just enjoy the trip.

OK, the first ten minutes doesn't shout out to you: this is going to be fun but stick with it because it really is. Kay Francis and George Brent were never going to win any Oscars but they are perfect in something light like this - they do make a great romantic couple. Likewise Genevieve Tobin, once you get used to the affected accent, also shows a real talent as for comedy whilst also adding a bit of class.

Overall it's put together perfectly. The script is tight, witty and fast, the acting natural and believable and the direction, although nothing spectacular is professional but most miraculously of all is that dress!

Kay Francis is a divorcee who happens to overhear her ex husband's new wife (Genevieve Tobin) plotting an assignation with her would be lover (George Brent). Francis hatches an elaborate plot to lure Tobin and Brent to her holiday home, and then expose them to her ex, so that she can get him back. However, things start to go wrong, not least because Francis begins to be attracted to Brent, and he to her. and the plot becomes even more confused by a couple of jewel thieves, until just about everyone is pretending to be someone else, in fact it reminds me a bit of a PG.Wodehouse novel, which generally contain several imposters. It is all quite hilarious.

... And a shining example of how to do precode in the production code era. Georgiana (Kay Francis) is vacationing at a seaside resort. She accidentally overhears Bob McNear (George Brent) and Betty (Genevieve Tobin) planning a rendezvous. It's actually Betty planning one, as she wants to get one over on her husband. She's in love with the idea, not with Bob. Georgiana is amused by this conversation but doesn't think anything more of it since she doesn't know these people until she later runs into her ex-husband, Ralph (Ralph Forbes), in the resort ballroom that night. He is happy to see her, says he regrets divorcing her two years before, and points out his current wife, across the room, who broke up the marriage. It turns out that this current wife is Betty!

So Georgiana gets an idea. She will fix it so that Betty and Bob wind up in the same place that her ex-husband Ralph does, showing Betty up for what she is, and thus getting Ralph back. Like Betty, she is in love with the idea not the man. How she goes about arranging this is very creative and funny.

So, this movie might have been less fun with Georgiana the only one in the complete know for the entire film, so a couple of jewel thieves are inserted into all of this who also wind up at Betty and Bob's destination, with Georgiana having no idea who they are and what they are doing there. Meanwhile Bob and Georgiana, previously just mildly infatuated, begin to develop real feelings for one another.

So many romantic comedies did everything wrong when their wings were clipped by the production code. This one is almost perfect by being genuinely funny and implying things right up to the edge of what was allowed at the time. The cast is perfect. Brent and Francis always had great chemistry, Tobin is delightfully wicked in a harmless kind of way if that is possible, Forbes is clueless as Georgiana's first husband - a real stuffed shirt, and honorable mention has to go to William Austin in a very small but memorable role as Ralph's brother. He manages to be, in every way possible, a completely unappealing man. I'd highly recommend this one.

Delightful comedy in which Kay Francis is a divorcee who devises a cunning plot to get her ex husband back from his new wife (Genevive Tobin) whom she overhears planning a rendezvous with another man (George Brent). Things get very complicated and several people end up pretending to be someone else, including a couple of jewel thieves. With all the complications, imposters etc, this film reminds me a bit of a story by P.G. Wodehouse, his books were always rich with imposters, and he had more than one jewel thieving couple. He could have written this entertaining tale, it even has a formidable elderly aunt (Helen Lowell). Great fun.

This is the best of the Kay Francis vehicles, and I had never heard of it before a couple days ago.

Kay is stylish, George Brent actually looks handsome. And there is a real plot, not just cutesy and/or tear-jerking posturing.

Married couples, formerly married couples. And -- a couple who are jewel thieves.

It zings along and is great, amusing, romantic fun.