Mariti in pericolo

This is the best of the Kay Francis vehicles, and I had never heard of it before a couple days ago.

Kay is stylish, George Brent actually looks handsome. And there is a real plot, not just cutesy and/or tear-jerking posturing.

Married couples, formerly married couples. And -- a couple who are jewel thieves.

It zings along and is great, amusing, romantic fun.

... And a shining example of how to do precode in the production code era. Georgiana (Kay Francis) is vacationing at a seaside resort. She accidentally overhears Bob McNear (George Brent) and Betty (Genevieve Tobin) planning a rendezvous. It's actually Betty planning one, as she wants to get one over on her husband. She's in love with the idea, not with Bob. Georgiana is amused by this conversation but doesn't think anything more of it since she doesn't know these people until she later runs into her ex-husband, Ralph (Ralph Forbes), in the resort ballroom that night. He is happy to see her, says he regrets divorcing her two years before, and points out his current wife, across the room, who broke up the marriage. It turns out that this current wife is Betty!

So Georgiana gets an idea. She will fix it so that Betty and Bob wind up in the same place that her ex-husband Ralph does, showing Betty up for what she is, and thus getting Ralph back. Like Betty, she is in love with the idea not the man. How she goes about arranging this is very creative and funny.

So, this movie might have been less fun with Georgiana the only one in the complete know for the entire film, so a couple of jewel thieves are inserted into all of this who also wind up at Betty and Bob's destination, with Georgiana having no idea who they are and what they are doing there. Meanwhile Bob and Georgiana, previously just mildly infatuated, begin to develop real feelings for one another.

So many romantic comedies did everything wrong when their wings were clipped by the production code. This one is almost perfect by being genuinely funny and implying things right up to the edge of what was allowed at the time. The cast is perfect. Brent and Francis always had great chemistry, Tobin is delightfully wicked in a harmless kind of way if that is possible, Forbes is clueless as Georgiana's first husband - a real stuffed shirt, and honorable mention has to go to William Austin in a very small but memorable role as Ralph's brother. He manages to be, in every way possible, a completely unappealing man. I'd highly recommend this one.

The best thing about this romantic comedy is how good it looks thanks to cinematographer Sidney Hickok. This 1935 but the interior scenes look like they were shot in the 1950's. Hickok was a brilliant cinematographer whose career began in the silents and he would go on to shoot such films as The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, To Have and Have Not, A slight Case of Murder, Gentleman Jim and the sci-fi classic Them. Charles Kenyon wrote the story and the screenplay about a woman who overhears the woman who stole away her husband planning a weekend affair with another man so she hatches an elaborate plan to embarrass the woman and her ex by diverting the cheating couple to her home and getting her ex to come over to catch them. Another couple who are jewel thieves are inadvertently lured into her trap and things start getting complicated. It's a good story and a good cast with Kay Francis, George Bret, Genevieve Tobin, John Eldredge, Claire Dodd, Ralph Forbes, William Austin and Helen Lowell. With the rampant infidelity theme this story was probably written with pre-code Hollywood in mind but with the code going into effect the year before it's release it was filmed as a little less salacious. Alfred E. Green who would make such films as The Jolson Story and The Jackie Robinson Story directs. it's a fun little film and I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.

Don't let the first ten minutes put you off. You might get the impression that it's going to be a stuffy drawing room comedy about people you're not going to like but you'd be wrong - it becomes an engaging and genuinely funny old fashioned farce.

The biggest revelation this picture gives you is that men's swimwear in the 30s was insanely ridiculous. The second revelation is that Kay Francis' dress could only exist in a world where gravity didn't exist - logically that shouldn't stay up! All that aside, this film after a slow start eventually turns into a charming silly comedy in the same vein as TOP HAT.

We've got a bunch of people stranded in a country house swapping bedrooms with the wrong partners, plots to break up a marriage, plots to save a marriage, plots to bring two people together, plots to steal diamonds and.... well it's not that important, just enjoy the trip.

OK, the first ten minutes doesn't shout out to you: this is going to be fun but stick with it because it really is. Kay Francis and George Brent were never going to win any Oscars but they are perfect in something light like this - they do make a great romantic couple. Likewise Genevieve Tobin, once you get used to the affected accent, also shows a real talent as for comedy whilst also adding a bit of class.

Overall it's put together perfectly. The script is tight, witty and fast, the acting natural and believable and the direction, although nothing spectacular is professional but most miraculously of all is that dress!

Delightful comedy in which Kay Francis is a divorcee who devises a cunning plot to get her ex husband back from his new wife (Genevive Tobin) whom she overhears planning a rendezvous with another man (George Brent). Things get very complicated and several people end up pretending to be someone else, including a couple of jewel thieves. With all the complications, imposters etc, this film reminds me a bit of a story by P.G. Wodehouse, his books were always rich with imposters, and he had more than one jewel thieving couple. He could have written this entertaining tale, it even has a formidable elderly aunt (Helen Lowell). Great fun.