Careless Lady

"Men aren't interested in a sheet of white paper with no writing on it," innocent Joan Bennett is advised in Careless Lady. This is a pre-Code comedy that focuses on keeping one's virtue and avoiding scandal. If you're able to put on your 1932 goggles, or you just usually appreciate the time period, it's very funny. But if you're a modern lady through and through, you probably won't even make it through. It's very dated.

As does frequently happen to the innocent, her first indiscretion is punished. Joan gets taken to a speakeasy, and there's a raid. If you have very good eyes (like me), you might recognize a pre-famous Ward Bond as the policeman who raids the speakeasy. He does have a few lines, so you can confirm it's him, and it's a lot of fun to see him before he got more experienced in front of the camera.

Before the raid, Joan has a flirtatious interaction with playboy John Boles. She winds up wearing his coat during the scuffle, and acting on a whim, she takes a cruise pretending to be his wife. She believes it's not respectable to travel alone, but as a married woman, she'll be respected and left alone. It turns out John isn't married, so imagine his surprise when his friends start congratulating him on his beautiful bride! Again, it's pretty dated, but if you like old comedies about this subject matter, give it a try. Joan is very cute, and John gets to let his hair down in a different, carefree role.

When the story begins, Sally (Joan Bennett) is a rather plain lady who folks barely notice. However, her life is soon to change. After getting a makeover she is soon mistaken as a married lady, Mrs. Illington. At first, she wants to correct people but then realizes that men are more likely to pay attention to a married woman than a single one. So, she boards the ship to Europe as Mrs. Illington. There is a problem, however....soon Mr. Illington (John Boles) arrives...and he's quite amused to discover he has a wife!

There is a lot to like about "Careless Lady". The story is very well written, there's a wonderful and clever singing duette you just need to see and the story is both funny and romantic. Well worth your time.

John Boles and Joan Bennett star in this pre-code piece of fluff about a young innocent girl who pretends she is married to someone she meets in a speakeasy so that she can have the freedom to travel alone to Europe and pursue men.

Silly script in the extreme, but there are some enjoyable moments, mostly coming from John Boles, who does wonders making this bad movie look good. He had to have been the most handsome man to ever grace film celluloid. His eyes sparkle and his sense of humor saves the day. Why he finds the little simp played by Joan attractive is beyond me, since she goes around lying to people and taking his name, but he does.

Funniest moment: Joan leaves her Paris hotel after being confronted by John in her lie that she is his wife. Trying to win her, he starts to sing in French through their adjoining hotel chamber doors, but she is gone, and a fat French maid begins singing along with him in a high attractive voice on the other side. He thinks Joan is singing, and opens the door, and drops the tray he is carrying in shock when he sees who is on the other side. Funny stuff.

A pleasant enough way to spend an hour but don't expect anything substantial or profound. There were lots of pre-code films made like this which were pretty silly. It's my theory the public got tired of them rather quickly and that is why the censors were allowed to come in: to improve films and get the audience back in the theater.

This one is a real surprise. You've never heard of it, but catch it if you can, you'll have a ball. Sophisticated, witty, sharp -- exactly the kind of thing that was over by time we entered the war. 'Trouble In Paradise', 'Jewel Robbery', 'By Candlelight'; it really was the era to laugh at the troubles of the rich.

It must have had quite an element of fantasy for a Depression audience, in that everybody in it seemed to have money, even the young innocent (Bennett) who gets in hot water when she passes herself off as a sophisticate; today you'll fantasize, too, about being surrounded by all that beautiful art deco design. They certainly dressed well back then, at least those with money did, and they all seemed so civilized.

The plot is beautifully developed, and the cast is interesting, too: the great Josephine Hull ("Harvey", "Arsenic And Old Lace") in one of her first movie appearances; Fortunio Bonanova (the singing teacher in "Citizen Kane") as a cartoon "wolf"; Susan Fleming, later Mrs. Harpo Marx, in one of her few movies; Minna Gombell, one of the great 'smart broads'; and a guy named Weldon Heyburn who seems to be doing a Clark Gable impression, which is very surprising, as Gable was just getting started himself.

Very nicely directed, too -- it moves well, and has some of those stylish scene transitions that you see from time to time in this era. The only disappointment is the two leads, who are okay, nothing more. If instead of John Boles and Joan Bennett it had been people with a real flair for this kind of comedy -- Melvyn Douglas and Myrna Loy, say -- this would have been a major title. As it is, watch it for the script and the texture of its era.