Mademoiselle a disparu

MAID'S NIGHT OUT is an absurd little screwball comedy which demonstrates, in painful fashion, why JOAN FONTAINE was relegated to programmers during her early career at RKO. As in most of her other "comic" turns, she's not served well by a script that would be a hurdle for an accomplished comedienne like Constance Bennett, an actress Fontaine admired greatly.

How anyone would mistake Fontaine for a domestic is a pill hard to swallow--and the ensuing plot twists are equally hard to deal with, even in a screwball comedy. The scene with the milk bottles being tossed off the truck is just too much.

JOAN FONTAINE and ALLAN LANE do the best they can with a tiresome script that has her behaving like a spoiled brat for most of the running time, which is mercifully brief. HEDDA HOPPER is her foolish mother and there's a standout performance by BILLY GILBERT as a fish peddler (at a time when a pound of fish was 18 cents!).

Not an essential Joan Fontaine film, even though TCM features it whenever celebrating her birthday. She looks lovely and she and Allan Lane make a charming couple but it's a strained performance--especially on that milk truck with her floundering around in discomfort as the police chase begins.

"Maid's Night Out" is a film that is quite enjoyable...but also understand that it's also sometimes quite stupid...mostly at the end. I am not necessarily saying to avoid the picture...just lower your expectations and enjoy...or not.

Bill (Allen 'Rocky' Lane) is the son of a rich dairy owner...and he's quite spoiled. The father thinks he's so spoiled he isn't good for much of anything. But Bill wants to prove something to his dad and makes him a bet that he can work the lowest job at the company, a milk delivery man, and not screw up in the least.

During the process of this bet, Bill meets Sheila (Joan Fontaine). And, since he's dressed as a milkman and she appears to be a servant, both thinks that they are dating a poor working class person. Imagine their surprise when they learn the truth.

So far, so good. However...the ending! The police arrest Bill for no reason in particular...other than he broke into Sheila's home by climbing in an upstairs window with his ladder! How this later came to have folks think Bill KIDNAPPED her is beyond me...and so much of what the pair do next makes perfect sense...if you have had a traumatic brain injury! It's a mess...plain and simple and I had to force myself not to turn it off when Sheila started tossing milk bottles at cops! Huh???

This is a bit of comic fluff that is mostly notable as a a very early starring vehicle for Joan Fontaine. She is cute, but quite mannered, especially when the script calls for her to laugh. The plot concerns a milk magnate's son who is studying to be an ichthyologist and who agrees to drive a milk truck for daddy's company for one month on a bet. He meets up with socialite Joan whom he mistakes for a domestic and much silliness ensues. Future cowboy star Allan Lane is charming as the fish student cum milkman and Hedda Hopper is good for a few laughs as Joan's ditsy mother. Of course Joan and Allan hate each other on sight, but things progress as one would expect in a 'B' romantic comedy of this period.

Look for Jack Carson in an uncredited bit part as a roller coaster attendant, and Lee Patrick as a lady who is ready to kiss any milkman who appears at her kitchen door. (The small part of Allan's cousin is played by an actress named Vicki Lester, which of course is the stage name of the heroine of "A Star Is Born," which came out the previous year. Since her credits only begin in 1937, I'm guessing she took her name from the movie.)

I agree with the other reviews on the funny and screwball nature of the film. This genre must never be compared to the gutter-realism of today's movies. I can't help but watch old movies as a piece of living history, comparing the "then" to the "now" . I recognized the old Los Angeles neighborhood filled with 2-bedroom plaster houses that were either Tudor or Spanish - they are still there and the same homes are now worth over a million dollars; except that the streets are no longer so pristine clean. My husband, who immigrated in the late 1960s, said his first "culture shock" was how clean and orderly American cities were, and when I see this movie, I kind of begin to see what he is referring to. People today are not so attuned to one another, nor so meticulous in their grooming. It was somewhat painful to see Greek and Russian immigrants be the focus of Hollywood humor, which hasn't changed; Hollywood still aims to entertain by targeting certain types. Joan Fontaine is amazing. The smile never leaves her face, yet she subtly conveys a spectrum of emotions. She is a delight. The simple, clean optimism of this film is a pure delight. It also is a reminder of what we have lost.

RKO did not set out to make a masterpiece with "Maid's Night Out," but if one accepts that the ride here will be silly and harmless lower-budget movie entertainment one can find some laughs and plenty of satisfying and even fascinating amusement.

There are three components that make this film distinctively interesting: 1) Joan Fontaine seriously letting loose in a screwball-type of comedy; 2) Alan Lane showing a lighthearted, cheerful, and comic side, which contrasts with the pleasantly stoic and heroic character he exhibited in all those westerns he would become known for later in his career; and 3) a parade of beautiful automobiles and other vehicles traveling along rural roads and big city streets in 1930's southern California.

Some reviews are somewhat downcast about this minor film, but I think if a vintage movie buff has been inquisitive enough to have somehow followed a path here to this film's IMDb discussion one should stick around and see it.