Service for Ladies

Service For Ladies is an early film by producer Alexander Korda in Great Britain before he started his London Film Company. This one was made under the auspices of Paramount Pictures shot over on the other side of the pond and released in America and in the United Kingdom under their white mountain banner.

I'm not sure how well it did here because it deals with the European concept of class distinctions. Not that we don't have it here, but in America it usually involves money. Over there it's titles.

Leslie Howard plays the head waiter at a posh London night spot where Morton Selten and daughter Elizabeth Allan are dining out. One look at her and he chases her to the continent when he hears she's going to a resort. And she gets it in her head that Howard is some kind of royalty. After all there is a king from some unnamed country vacationing there who knows Howard who is played by George Grossmith. Of course the king's dined at Howard restaurant before.

Service For Ladies is kind of a Cinderella story in reverse where the boy is the one who gets the magical evening. Howard plays the role with his usual charm. I'm sure it did well over in Europe, I can't see it having much of a market in Depression America. Still it's a nice dated antique of a film.

Max Tracey (Leslie Howard) is a superb head waiter. He works at the finest restaurant and is beloved by the rich as well as royalty. However, he also knows that no matter how much these folks adore him and look to him, he still will never be one of them. Ironically, when he goes on vacation and is mistaken for a prince traveling incognito! And, to make matters interesting, a lovely young countess falls for her and he rebuffs her advances. She thinks it's because this 'prince' thinks he's above her....whereas in reality he realizes a commoner has little chance with a countess. What's to come of all this? See the film.

This clever film gently pokes fun at the British class system and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It never is a laugh out loud film....more one that makes you think. I noticed some found it slow and tough viewing....I found it clever and engaging....with a lovely performance by Howard.

There is not a whole lot of story or plot, but the cast members are uniformly talented and their characters are generally likable.

That plus the production values and the interesting look at England, and especially London, in the early 1930s make "Service for Ladies" a pleasant entertainment.

I saw this on Turner Classic Movies and, as I have found with so many English movies on TCM, the sound was rather garbled and hard to understand.

Perhaps it's just the age of the film -- I mean, surely it's not the age of the ears.

Regardless, "Service for Ladies" is fun, definitely watchable.

Alexander Korda was certainly a very fine producer of British films, but SERVICE FOR LADIES is a very dated British comedy of manners playing up the class distinction that prevents commoners from associating with those higher up on the social ladder.

Furthermore, the print shown on TCM looked faded and slightly blurry which made the film seem even more of an antique. The script is the sort where mistaken identity is played for whatever laughs it can get--and very few laughs make for a deadly dull comedy.

LESLIE HOWARD, who usually has such a flair for romantic comedy, has to carry the film with very little help from ELIZABETH ALLAN and BENITA HUME as two women he fancies. The script doesn't give them enough to work with so the performances are undistinguished, to say the least.

Howard was seen to much better advantage in his American films, particularly IT'S LOVE I'M AFTER ('37), a romantic comedy in which his skill at playing comedy was overwhelmingly evident.

You won't get that impression here.

When stylish Sylvia Robertson (Elizabeth Allan) keeps dropping her packages, Max (Leslie Howard) keeps picking them up and returning them to her. He follows her back to her hotel, and asks the clerk about her, and the clerk is quite willing to tell all about her -- so much for privacy! Then we see Max speaking with Countess Ricardi (Benita Hume), who is calling from her bathtub. Max heads off to work, and manages to find out where Sylvia is going on holiday, so he decides to follow her (like a stalker....) This love triangle is one of the early talkies, and there are some clever lines and comedy moments via the identity mixups and surprises. The middle portion of the story supposedly takes place in an exotic European ski lodge, but I'm sure it was all done in a film lot on Paramount UK studios. Our story, originally by Ernest Vajda, ends up being a statement on love between the classes. Everyone behaves badly, but the best performance is by Morton Selten, as Sylvia's father. Enjoyable film, but I personally thought the ending was a little abrupt; it ties up some loose ends, and leaves us with another funny scene. Now, on IMDb, "run time" shows UK version 93 minutes, but US version only 73 minutes, and that is indeed what we saw on Turner Classic... That may explain why the end is so abrupt... what's in those missing 20 minutes ?? This1932 version seems to be a remake of the 1927 silent film, which starred Adolphe Menjou.