Lo scandalo del giorno

Take a story of no significance, load it with events of dubious credibility...and what do you have? If you also manage to include roles that are ideal for Clark Gable, Constance Bennett and Billie Burke, and if you find these players at the top of their form, and bring this mix alive with a crackling script by Herman Mankiewicz, the significance and credibility of it all are distinctly secondary. The characters talk fast, think fast, and move fast. This type of picture was done often in the 30s: part screwball, part melodrama, part love story (with sharp edges). When it worked - as it surely does here - you would be royally entertained. Enjoy.

After Office Hours (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A hard nosed editor (Clark Gable) hires a society girl (Constance Bennett) as a reporter but he's actually using her to try and crack a story on a playboy (Stuart Erwin). The editor gets in over his head when a murder takes place and might put the girl in danger, which is even worse when he falls for her. This is certainly minor fair but it's made entertaining by the terrific performance by Gable. It's somewhat shocking to see how great he is even though the story is pretty bland and unoriginal. For the most part Gable plays the part as a fast talker and he comes off very charming in doing this. He certainly keeps the film going with his performance and almost makes the viewer forget how silly the actual story is. Bennett is also very good in her role and the two stars work well together. The film borrows some from Gable's Oscar winning role in It Happened One Night and there's also a funny scene where Gable plays Popeye. The first thirty-minutes are actually pretty involving but the second half of the movie completely falls apart when the love story is brought in. There's also some slapstick comedy that comes out of no where and really seems like a scene from another movie accidentally edited into this one. Henry Travers of It's a Wonderful Life has a small role.

Clark Gable is fun as a (maybe not so) tough-guy reporter. Stuart Erwin is wasted -- fine but he deserved more -- as his subordinate. Billie Burke is as always fun. But Constance Bennett strolls away with this.

Probably 99.9% of all living beings today have never heard of Ms. Bennett. Granted, about 90% have probably never heard of Clark Gable, either, But there is something odd about Bennett's fall from grace.

She was a huge star and her performances hold up beautifully. Yet, she seems to be viewed as a blip on the radar screen of American movie history, which she really was not.

I wonder, as an example, why "Topper" is almost never shown. I saw it once and thought it a very chic and appealing screwball comedy. Heaven knows, it spawned sequels (sot of sequels) and a TV series based on it was quite popular. Are there some sort of copyright problems? This movie, in any case, has a nice, twisting plot. It's amusing, it's stylish, it has a bit of suspense. It isn't great by any means, though it surely would have been more fun before the Code -- only a year or two before it was released.

(The title is racy but seems to have little bearing on the movie itself, just as an aside.)

First half hour's great as Herman J. Mankiewiecz's typewriter functions more like a Gatling gun, spewing out wisecracks, putdowns, zingers and bon mots all over the place. Then, right after the scene at the Riverview Cafe, Mank's comic energy begins to wane and the not very interesting plot and story, something to do with high society adultery and murder, takes over and director Robert Z. Leonard's lack of visual comic skills is alarmingly exposed. So, let's give it a generous C plus for the first thirty minutes and the charm and comic timing of Gable, Bennett and a couple of the subsidiary players like Stu Erwin and Billie Burke.

Until the murder takes place, "After Office Hours" seems tired and boring with a stellar cast going to waste, but then it turns into a fairly decent romantic comedy murder yarn. Though it is always a delight to see Constance Bennett and Clark Gable on the screen, and together they do make a dynamic pair, the funniest lines come from Stu Erwin and William Demarest. The movie comes to life when the police detective (Demarest in an uncredited role)investigates the crime scene. Demarest steals the show and it becomes obvious why he went on to become one of Hollywood's leading character actors. The most hilarious part of the movie comes toward the end when Jim Branch (Gable) is doing his own investigation at the prime suspect's house. He has Hank Parr (Erwin)talk as loud as possible to see if his voice can be heard over the music coming from the Victrola upstairs. If you don't laugh at Stu Erwin's antics in this scene then you need to have your giggle box tested. It was pleasing to see Margaret Dumont, the butt of so many of Groucho's wisecracks in the Marx Brothers films, in a brief walk on part. She makes the most of the few seconds given her. Too bad she wasn't given a larger part.

Though this is no "It Happened One Night," it is entertaining with several cleverly written scenes highlighting the comic talents of Stu Erwin and William Demarest. Add the enchanting Constance Bennett, the always debonair Clark Gable, a tipsy Billie Burke and how can you go wrong?