Hands Across the Table

...then you ought to rent this movie. She is just adorable, and charming beyond belief, as avowed gold-digger Regi Allen. All the supporting players here are wonderful. However, male lead Fred MacMurray comes off -- at least to me -- as a very cold fish. His endless "humorous" comments have an angry undercurrent, and the script, while admitting the guy is very shallow (shallow, angry -- sounds like a keeper), also insists he's this wacky dreamboat.

When you get down to it, all he has to offer Regi over the love-struck, crippled Allen Macklyn (Ralph Bellamy, playing what I think is the first of his many second male leads dumped by the leading lady for the first male lead) is that he can walk.

"Hands Across the Table" serves as a great showcase for the comedy talents of Carole Lombard. She and Fred MacMurray work well together. This was their first of 4 teamings. There's a funny bit by William Demarest and great support from Ruth Donnelly and especially Marie Prevost as Lombard's pal Nona. All in all, a light, funny and enjoyable film.

Hands Across the Table is the first of four films that Paramount teamed Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard in. It's one of MacMurray's earliest film and he's playing what he would perennially be typecast as, a light leading man. That is until Double Indemnity showed just how dramatic he could be.

The hands across the table refer to those hands that a manicurist deals with and Lombard is a manicurist. This is the middle of the Great Depression and Lombard working in a hotel figures she can snag a millionaire. She actually does in the person of Ralph Bellamy.

But figuring to trade higher she meets Fred MacMurray who has the nice WASPy rich sounding name of Theodore Drew III. Problem is as he says to Lombard, the family fortune crashed in 1929. He's set his sights on a rich heiress, Astrid Allwyn, who will be able to support him in the style he was previously accustomed to.

Director Mitchell Leisen keeps the proceedings light and airy and its obvious that MacMurray and Lombard are suited for each other on the screen. No accident that they made three successive films, all of them money makers.

Funniest scene in the film how MacMurray scares away William Demarest as a prospective suitor for Lombard. Worth the price of the VHS tape alone.

"Hands Across the Table" is a sparkling and enjoyable screwball romance, directed with an airy grace by the underrated Paramount stylist Mitchell Leisen, whose "Easy Living"(1937) and "Swing High, Swing Low"(1937) are two of the greatest classics of the 1930s. "Hands" is a minor work to be sure, but it is enjoyable and worthwhile for showcasing the comedic talents of Carole Lombard as the gold-digging manicurist who falls for a former millionaire playboy, played by Fred MacMurray. Ralph Bellamy plays Lombard's rejected suitor, a role that somehow prefigures his role in Hawks' "His Girl Friday".

On top of being a huge fan of classic film for goodness knows how long, my main reason for seeing 'Hands Across the Table' was Carole Lombard. A lovely and always well worth watching actress who died tragically, in one of the worst and most tragic ways to die, far too young with so much more to give. It is always interesting too to see older films with a mix of comedy and romance.

'Hands Across the Table' is another one of Lombard's four (too few as they worked so well together) teamings with Fred MacMurray, in fact it was actually their first. The others being 'The Princess Comes Across', 'True Confession' and 'Swing High, Swing Low'. Of the four, 'Hands Across the Table' gets my vote as the best of them. Although the other three had much to enjoy without being flawless of course, this, while not perfect, was on the most part an utter delight. It may not be quite one of the greatest screwball comedies, but it certainly shows why witty and sophisticated comedy appeals to me so much and does it with class and charm.

Maybe it does get a little over-serious towards the end and it slows down slightly at this point, but there is very little at all to criticise with 'Hands Across the Table'.

The good things are a great many, and in terms of quantity they are absolutely great. 'Hands Across the Table' is a great looking film, it's sumptuously shot with beautiful costumes and the camera clearly loves Lombard. The music fits amiably and doesn't sound stock or at odds with the film. Mitchell Leisen directs with a very light and sure-footed touch that stops 'Hands Across the Table' from getting too heavy.

Absolutely loved the script, which sparkles in its wit and the sophistication is elegance personified, nothing distasteful or vulgar here. The story is a slight one with not many surprises perhaps, but it is adroitly paced and never less than charming and sweet without being cloying. The ending is really quite beautiful and packs a punch.

Lombard expectedly is wonderful, exuding glamour and enjoying herself to the hilt, her trademark zaniness and delicacy perfectly captured. MacMurray is in an early role here and for me he did have good comic timing and avoided playing the role too heavily or overly-seriously, even if became more comfortable and even more assured in his later films and in his later outings with Lombard. Their romantic chemistry works a charm and is more than believable throughout. The supporting cast are just as strong, Ralph Bellamy and Ruth Donnelly marvellous.

In conclusion, a lovely, delightful film and treats for admirers of Lombard. 8/10