If You Could Only Cook

Entertaining, almost screwball-like, comedy about successful car designer, James Buchanan (Herbert Marshall), soon to be married in what seems like a "marriage of convenience" to a society woman he doesn't love. Well, he meets a pretty out-of-work blonde named Joan (Jean Arthur) on a park bench where she is busy reading the want ads. Finding an ad desiring a married couple for "cook and butler", they decide to pretend they are married and apply for the job (James agreeing to go along with the idea 'cause he "likes" her). Well, they get the job, the employers are a bunch of gangsters, and they end up living in the servants quarters above the garage with just one double bed!

This is a very enjoyable film, much better than I was expecting. The plot is lots of fun, and features a couple of my favorite actors, Jean Arthur and Herbert Marshall, who are both great in this - they even seemed to have some chemistry together (even though the first kiss between them looked almost like a boy kissing his grandma). The actors who play the gangsters in this are quite funny, especially Lionel Stander as the main man's sidekick, a guy named Flash who seems like just another dumb mug, but is actually the one who immediately catches on, via snooping around, that James and Joan may not really be a married couple. A really good film that deserves to be more well known than it is.

This is a rather simple plot for a film, but due to exceptional writing, deft direction and the winning acting of Herbert Marshall and Jean Arthur, it's a wonderful movie. This is a great old romantic film that would be great to see with someone you love.

Marshall plays the CEO of a huge car manufacturing company. When his ideas are rejected by the board, he gets annoyed with the business. At about the same time, he meets Arthur, who has no idea he's a rich big-shot. She actually thinks he's an out of work schnook and convinces him to apply to a job with her--she as a cook and he as a butler in the same household. Since Ms. Arthur is so charming and sweet, he agrees and neither she nor the employer know his true calling. Later, this misunderstanding REALLY gets out of hand, but I don't want to spoil the film by explaining further.

The bottom line is that the freshness and delightful nature of the film make up for the fact that the plot line is pretty hard to believe. Unless you are an old grouch or hate old films (people like this need to be shot), you will like this film.

Interestingly, the film was so good that Columbia Pictures' president, Harry Cohn, tried a "fast one". Since Frank Capra worked at the studio and was now famous for IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (having practically swept the Oscars) and since IF YOU ONLY COULD COOK was such a sweet film, it was marketed as a Capra Film--even though Capra had NOTHING to do with it!! As a result, Capra sued and Cohn nearly lost his job until it was all smoothed over and tempers subsided.

James Buchanan and Joan Hawthorne meet on a park bench one day. Buchanan is sulking away about his impending marriage which is sure to be a loveless one, while Hawthorne is perusing the job vacancy adverts in the paper completely baffled by her lack of suitability for all the positions. Once the pair strike up a conversation it becomes apparent that both of them could help each other if they are prepared to take a risk, the risk would mean posing as a husband and wife team and entering the service of Mike Rossini, but little do they know that Rossini is something of a local wise guy, love and gangsters.......interesting.

If You Could Only Cook slips firmly into the category of films that deserve to be called charming, simple in structure and honest in its intent, it's a most enjoyable piece that leaves a long and warm impression after the initial viewing. There are many different reasons why so many old black and white pictures get termed classics, with one of the main instances being the ability to have longevity of entertainment values. It only really becomes apparent with a film such as this when you compare it with the more modern day romantic comedies, where today's directors and writers are prepared to force the issue with star appeal and cloying scripts, here the makers are fresh with zippy dialogue and charm personified.

Jean Arthur is Joan, a wonderful bone structured face and a lovely fulsome figure, she's a smashing actress that carries off the required romantic humour with consummate ease. Playing off her with equally excellent results is Herbert Marshall as James, many other actors could do no worse than to watch Marshall when they want guidance in the art of line delivery, peachy and carrying a great presence, Marshall remains a sadly undervalued old time performer. Villain duties fall to Leo Carrillo {Rossini} and the wonderful Lionel Stander as henchman Flash, while all the supporting members come up to the requisite charming standards. But ultimately it's a team achievement across the board, from the writing to the wink at the end of the piece, If You Could Only Cook is a smashing film that makes one feel all the more richer for having sat thru it. 8/10

The Austin Film Society showed this entertaining old film last week on election night. The receptive audience found laughs in many lines that still seem current, especially about unemployment, the want ads and being broke.

Jean Arthur looked lovely in this movie, and Herbert Marshall was perfect. What a wonderful voice that man had! My husband thinks that his walk may have inspired C3PO's formal motions, although the robot had a metal leg, not a wooden one like Mr. Marshall's.

Lionel Stander was already in full bellow, many decades before 'Hart to Hart', and Leo Carillo was a treat as the gangster employer. It was a surprise to hear them use the term 'wise guy' for a prospective member - I didn't realize it was already being used back then.

This dry, low-key romantic comedy is very satisfying. Arthur is excellent, and Marshall is well cast as an automobile executive who wants to get away from his stuffy board of directors and his pushy fiancé, and finds happiness posing as a butler (initially so that Arthur can get work as part of a butler-cook team). Lionel Stander (as he often does) steals the show as the acerbic sidekick of gangster Carillo, and he's given some great lines. Carillo is pleasing, too, as the gangster who wants to live like the gentry, and who's romantically interested in Arthur, but who's willing to hold back because he's a gourmet and is even more interested in retaining her as a cook. The best thing about the film is that it never gets tripped up in excessive plot complications, or telegraphs its humor. Giving Carillo a gustatorial as well as romantic interest allows him to take certain actions without burdening the romance of the principals. And, after giving us enough of a glimpse of the snotty fiancé to know what Marshall's in for, the film has the grace not to show her face again; no silly "scheming" or tiresome bared claws. In the final scene, when all are trying to convince Arthur through a locked door that she should marry, they move from straight arguments to playing roles in a "routine," but there's no winking and signaling to signify a change in technique, it just flows quickly and naturally. The film has enough confidence in the unfolding of the relationship between the principals that the intrusion of other characters and mechanical "plot complications" can be kept to a minimum Thus Carillo's proposal and interference at the denouement serves mainly to allow Arthur to voice her feelings about Marshall, and Carillo actually brings them together rather than holding them apart. Nice film.