La femme aux gardénias

I just caught this sixty-nine minute comedy/romance from RKO (released to American theaters in 1933) on TCM as part of their lost-and-found spot tonight. Very fun picture directed by John Cromwell and starring Ann Harding, William Powell, and Lucille Browne. I am not very familiar with Ms. Harding's career, but I must say that I was very much impressed with her performance here. Actresses today should watch her in this film and take lessons. Her facial expressions had so much depth and realism, something that we, with few exceptions, do not see in modern actors. Powell holds his own as a playboy wanting to do little with his life besides play Polo and women. This was a nice warm-up spot for Powell until he would make his most legendary 'The Thin Man' ('34) the following year. DOUBLE HARNESS has a heck of a lot to offer in its 69 minute runtime. Let's hope we see this one appear on DVD soon.

Really well done adaptation of the play to the screen. Rather wordy as was most early 1930's films, but quite charming nevertheless. And, indeed, rather risque for its day since there is a supposition at one point that Ann Harding's character, Joan, in trying to trap William Powell into marriage, is giving pre-marital favors and is actually caught in the process. The chemistry between Harding and Powell is quite good and it is unfortunate that the two were never paired again in another film.

This delightful and oh-so-sophisticated combination comedy/drama was my personal favorite at Cinefest. With clever dialogue, fetching lead actors and delicious directing, I was hooked at the onset. Beautiful Ann Harding is seen cooking and explaining to her engaged sister (Lucile Brown) that to men, business is business but that marriage is the business of women. Harding sets her sights on William Powell, a super smooth playboy who inherited a struggling shipping line. She sets a trap arranging for her sister to send their father (stern Henry Stephenson) to Powell's apartment for the purpose of catching Harding and Powell alone. To save face, Powell agrees to marry Harding, at least for a while. On the honeymoon, Powell suggests a divorce, while Harding coolly recommends they wait six months so as not to seem too obvious. She then starts steering him to leading his company back to profitability by looking at it as a challenge. With his talents now attending to business and not bedroom conquests, Powell starts to enjoy his newfound success and begins to fall in love with his bride. In the meantime Harding's jealous sister, now unhappily married, has been living beyond her means and needs money fast. She blurts out the truth of the marriage trap when Harding refuses to again pay off her debts. Powell leaves, disillusioned. Harding's father has arranged for a huge business deal to be offered to Powell at a formal dinner party at their home that very night. As Powell is boarding a ship to Europe, his frazzled wife is at home greeting guests and trying to maintain composure. One by one, each guest is involved in a personal crisis and is pulled away from the dinner party from hell, presided over by blustery Reginald Owen as the butler. I can't go on with out spoiling the best joke. This forgotten film is four stars all the way. I saw this film in March of 2004 at the CINEFEST film festival in Syracuse, NY. Thank god for film festivals like this one that make rare films like this available and the folks who provide comments to IMDB for others to share. Please support the IMDB and early film festivals!

"Double Harness" is a wonderful but obscure little RKO treasure from 1933, directed by John Cromwell, a capable craftsman who throughout his career specialized in prestige studio pictures. This is the earliest Cromwell picture I have seen, an adaptation of a rather loquacious play by Edward Poor Montgomery. I wanted to see it because I love Ann Harding and she is always a beautiful sight in almost everything she is in. I was pleased how radiant and divine Ms. Harding turned out to be in "Double Harness" - definitely one of her top five best films.

It's a small picture, with short (67 min) duration. Yes it's gabby, but intelligent & rapturous all the same, and I urge to seek out if you get the chance. William Powell - restrained, suave, and charismatic - is also wonderful as her romantic interest. Their precise charm and camaraderie and some of the ways she snares him into marriage are quite witty and delightful.

"He always has a drink," said my wife. She was speaking, of course, of William Powell's various characters, and I observed that he was always wealthy. Was he typecast? That is a question for seventy-years-ago; today, we just enjoy his work.

And it starred William Powell. (Isn't that enough?) In DOUBLE HARNESS, Powell plays John Fletcher, a playboy millionaire who is targeted for marriage by Joan Colby (Ann Harding). She gets her man, and this turns out to be to his immediate benefit. She gets him interested in running the company he inherited, and with her help, he's quite successful at it. He's a savvy guy, but she's clearly the woman behind the successful man. (Yes, such a thing still exists, some seventy years after.) Joan's sister Valerie (Lucille Browne) is something of a ditz with spending proclivities beyond her means. This leads to a disaster of a sort, but it's nothing Joan cannot handle.

The ending, which I shan't divulge, left me with a few questions, but the answers were not necessary and I was pleased with the film. William Powell fans, you don't want to miss the master at work.