La Fiancée imprévue

This dry, low-key romantic comedy is very satisfying. Arthur is excellent, and Marshall is well cast as an automobile executive who wants to get away from his stuffy board of directors and his pushy fiancé, and finds happiness posing as a butler (initially so that Arthur can get work as part of a butler-cook team). Lionel Stander (as he often does) steals the show as the acerbic sidekick of gangster Carillo, and he's given some great lines. Carillo is pleasing, too, as the gangster who wants to live like the gentry, and who's romantically interested in Arthur, but who's willing to hold back because he's a gourmet and is even more interested in retaining her as a cook. The best thing about the film is that it never gets tripped up in excessive plot complications, or telegraphs its humor. Giving Carillo a gustatorial as well as romantic interest allows him to take certain actions without burdening the romance of the principals. And, after giving us enough of a glimpse of the snotty fiancé to know what Marshall's in for, the film has the grace not to show her face again; no silly "scheming" or tiresome bared claws. In the final scene, when all are trying to convince Arthur through a locked door that she should marry, they move from straight arguments to playing roles in a "routine," but there's no winking and signaling to signify a change in technique, it just flows quickly and naturally. The film has enough confidence in the unfolding of the relationship between the principals that the intrusion of other characters and mechanical "plot complications" can be kept to a minimum Thus Carillo's proposal and interference at the denouement serves mainly to allow Arthur to voice her feelings about Marshall, and Carillo actually brings them together rather than holding them apart. Nice film.

Entertaining, almost screwball-like, comedy about successful car designer, James Buchanan (Herbert Marshall), soon to be married in what seems like a "marriage of convenience" to a society woman he doesn't love. Well, he meets a pretty out-of-work blonde named Joan (Jean Arthur) on a park bench where she is busy reading the want ads. Finding an ad desiring a married couple for "cook and butler", they decide to pretend they are married and apply for the job (James agreeing to go along with the idea 'cause he "likes" her). Well, they get the job, the employers are a bunch of gangsters, and they end up living in the servants quarters above the garage with just one double bed!

This is a very enjoyable film, much better than I was expecting. The plot is lots of fun, and features a couple of my favorite actors, Jean Arthur and Herbert Marshall, who are both great in this - they even seemed to have some chemistry together (even though the first kiss between them looked almost like a boy kissing his grandma). The actors who play the gangsters in this are quite funny, especially Lionel Stander as the main man's sidekick, a guy named Flash who seems like just another dumb mug, but is actually the one who immediately catches on, via snooping around, that James and Joan may not really be a married couple. A really good film that deserves to be more well known than it is.

this movie is in the spirit of pursuing your dreams and following your heart. it's the wonderfully silly story of a auto designer whose company wants to keep making what sells rather that try his new designs. while soul-searching in the park he meets unemployed Jean Arthur who thinks he's down on his luck also. she sees a job for a married couple (a live in butler and cook), turns to him and ergo, the title. anyway, it's a lot of fun. for some reason this isn't available on video and isn't shown on TCM etc. so i had to find a copy on eBay. and now our town is having a Jean Arthur film festival (why didn't they consult me!? :-)). this is my favorite of Jean Arthur's movies not available on video, followed by Party Wire.

James Buchanan and Joan Hawthorne meet on a park bench one day. Buchanan is sulking away about his impending marriage which is sure to be a loveless one, while Hawthorne is perusing the job vacancy adverts in the paper completely baffled by her lack of suitability for all the positions. Once the pair strike up a conversation it becomes apparent that both of them could help each other if they are prepared to take a risk, the risk would mean posing as a husband and wife team and entering the service of Mike Rossini, but little do they know that Rossini is something of a local wise guy, love and gangsters.......interesting.

If You Could Only Cook slips firmly into the category of films that deserve to be called charming, simple in structure and honest in its intent, it's a most enjoyable piece that leaves a long and warm impression after the initial viewing. There are many different reasons why so many old black and white pictures get termed classics, with one of the main instances being the ability to have longevity of entertainment values. It only really becomes apparent with a film such as this when you compare it with the more modern day romantic comedies, where today's directors and writers are prepared to force the issue with star appeal and cloying scripts, here the makers are fresh with zippy dialogue and charm personified.

Jean Arthur is Joan, a wonderful bone structured face and a lovely fulsome figure, she's a smashing actress that carries off the required romantic humour with consummate ease. Playing off her with equally excellent results is Herbert Marshall as James, many other actors could do no worse than to watch Marshall when they want guidance in the art of line delivery, peachy and carrying a great presence, Marshall remains a sadly undervalued old time performer. Villain duties fall to Leo Carrillo {Rossini} and the wonderful Lionel Stander as henchman Flash, while all the supporting members come up to the requisite charming standards. But ultimately it's a team achievement across the board, from the writing to the wink at the end of the piece, If You Could Only Cook is a smashing film that makes one feel all the more richer for having sat thru it. 8/10

"If You Could Only Cook" is a small film apparently credited to Frank Capra at one point but actually not by Capra, made in 1935, and it stars Herbert Marshall, Jean Arthur, Lionel Stander and Leo Carillo. Carillo was the Cisco Kid's sidekick Pancho on the TV series that boomers may remember; and Lionel Stander's unmistakable voice will be remembered from the Robert Wagner TV show "Hart to Hart." This is a film made during the Depression, and it concerns a wealthy auto executive named Jim Buchanan (Herbert Marshall) who is about to be married to the right kind of woman and is dreading it. While sitting on a park bench trying to escape his board of directors and his fiancé, he meets a down to earth young woman (Jean Arthur) who is desperately looking for a job and can't find anything. Plus, she's just lost her room. She finds a job that pays well, but it's for a couple. She talks Jim into applying for it with her -- he's the butler and she's the cook in the home of a gangster (Carillo). Thanks to her sauce, she is hired. Thus begins Buchanan's double life. You can guess the rest.

A very charming movie with a delightful performance by Arthur and a good one by Marshall. It's always hard to believe that Herbert Marshall was ever a leading man given the roles he had later on, but he was a type that went out of style -- very formal, well spoken, a little stuffy, modeled on the British. Films in the '30s were often based on plays, and the plays of that era dealt with class differences.

Capra initiated a lawsuit against Columbia for crediting him with this film in England, where he was very popular, but Harry Cohn purchased "You Can't Take It With You" for him in exchange for dropping the suit. So a little film, never seen by Capra, paid him a big dividend.