Une journée de printemps

Although given top billing for the first time in her career, it is not Olivia de Havilland who carries this low-key comedy of spring fever running rampant in an upperclass British family. Ian Hunter and Frieda Inescourt have the main burden--as well as Roland Young who makes amorous advances toward Frieda and Bonita Granville giving another of her irritating brat performances. Olivia makes scant few appearances as a lovesick girl batting her eyes at artist Walter Woolf King. Her role is so small it is a wonder the studio bothered to give her top billing. Likewise, Anita Louise is reduced to a small role as the attractive girl next door. Hunter and Inescourt do well in their parts but this minor comedy from a stage play is a trifle easily forgotten. Incidentally, Olivia's sister Joan Fontaine played a role in a Los Angeles stage version of the film. May have been the same one Olivia plays, but I'm not sure.

Frieda Inescort and Ian Hunter lead a solid cast in this minor but pleasant comedy about a London family's dreams and adventures over the course of a single day.

A pair of spirited daughters have some good scenes; Olivia de Havilland is obsessed with married painter Walter Woolf King, for whom she is modelling, while 14-year-old Bonita Granville is in love with the poetry and paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Their brother Peter Willes, meanwhile, is planning to run away from home—until he meets new neighbor girl Anita Louise. These young people are all attractive and funny, but their stories pop into the picture sporadically then disappear for long stretches, with the result that we kind of forget about them.

Roland Young is fine as an old bachelor who initially mistakes Inescort for his blind date and then, even after he discovers that she is married, insists that he loves her and attempts to romance her. Meanwhile, Inescort's accountant husband Hunter is pursued by slinky actress Marcia Ralston, who invites him to come up and see her sometime—not, it turns out, to work on her taxes.

The plot is inoffensive if not particularly inspired; the performances are all quite good and the characters too are likable. Still, there's something missing, and it's not just the fact that the whole thing is pretty dated. Possibly there are too many main characters for a 90-minute movie....we just don't get to know any of them well enough. (I would be interested to see sometime if this works better as a play—apparently it had a nice run on the stage.)

Ian Hunter is fine as the male lead but Frieda Inescort has the film's best role....as mother and wife she is alternately bemused, exasperated, challenged, and charmed. She comes closest to being a character we really care about.

Author Dodie Smith probably far better known for her novel 101 Dalmatians was the author of the play Call It A Day which ran on Broadway in 1936 for 194 performances. Before that it had done well in London. Hollywood's British colony with some American leavening was drafted into casting this rather slight comedy which gave Olivia DeHavilland her first role top billed.

I took note of the fact that it was Cosmopolitan Productions that made this film at Warner Brothers studio. This of course was the company headed by William Randolph Hearst and I'd bet that he bought this one for Marion Davies. He always saw her years younger and as the virtuous heroine. Olivia was 21 when she made this film and Marion was 41. Funny thing is she might well have been cast in Frieda Inescourt's role as Olivia's mother, but W.R. would never have let her appear in film in a mother's role.

Olivia is the oldest of three Hilton children the others being Peter Willes and Bonita Granville. On the first day of spring the entire family get themselves into some innocent spring flings with various people except Granville who's just in love with love and acts as kibitzer to her siblings. Ian Hunter is an accountant who gets more than he bargained for when he tries to work on the taxes of actress Marcia Ralston while Inescourt gets the mojo going for neighbor Roland Young. Olivia develops a crush on artist Walter Woolf King though for the life of me I can't see why, but his wife Peggy King is bothered. Willes starts paying attention to neighbor Anita Louise.

The film is done in the cross cutting style originated by Intolerance though the stories involve the actions of one family.

Call It A Day was an amusing bit of fluff in its time, but it's aged rather badly. It didn't do Olivia DeHavilland's career any harm and I'm sure she was grateful for the time away from being the heroine in crinoline just waiting supper for the hero which was usually Errol Flynn at this point in her career. Still no one will ever consider this one being in her top 10 performances.

It is the first day of spring. "The first Spring day is in the Devil's pay." This is one day in the life of the Hiltons. The eldest daughter Catherine 'Cath' Hilton (Olivia de Havilland) is overly dramatic and falls for the married artist painting her portrait. Roger Hilton (Ian Hunter) is doing the taxes of famous actress Beatrice Gwynn. Other members of the family all deal with their own complications.

I do have issues with the parents' stories. I have issues with all of their stories. I guess that the Devil's pay means exactly that. I don't necessarily find any of it that funny. Maybe if you're prim and proper, it's fun to walk the other side of the road for a little while. That must be the source of the comedy here, but I get no laughs from that.

I caught this gem of a comedy on a Saturday morning on TCM, and I wasn't expecting much from it. I watched it for the star, Olivia de Havilland. However, although she received top billing, her part was more of a supportive one as the eldest daughter. The plot centers on a married couple with three nearly grown children who find themselves each fielding persistent and unexpected flirtations. There are many clever, funny lines in the script. ("What about the children?" "Well, you could just divide them up between you." "But there are three, it wouldn't come out even!" ) Olivia's facial expressions in her scene with the painter show her rarely tapped comedic talent. I'm not sure why other reviewers gave this film such low marks; I've watched dozens of films from the era (often with bigger stars) that weren't nearly as funny. Another plus for this film is that it doesn't, like so many other Hayes Code era films, pretend that adultery either doesn't exist or that no one ever actually goes through with it. The two lead actors are witty and believable and the ending is surprisingly touching.