A doppia briglia

This delightful and oh-so-sophisticated combination comedy/drama was my personal favorite at Cinefest. With clever dialogue, fetching lead actors and delicious directing, I was hooked at the onset. Beautiful Ann Harding is seen cooking and explaining to her engaged sister (Lucile Brown) that to men, business is business but that marriage is the business of women. Harding sets her sights on William Powell, a super smooth playboy who inherited a struggling shipping line. She sets a trap arranging for her sister to send their father (stern Henry Stephenson) to Powell's apartment for the purpose of catching Harding and Powell alone. To save face, Powell agrees to marry Harding, at least for a while. On the honeymoon, Powell suggests a divorce, while Harding coolly recommends they wait six months so as not to seem too obvious. She then starts steering him to leading his company back to profitability by looking at it as a challenge. With his talents now attending to business and not bedroom conquests, Powell starts to enjoy his newfound success and begins to fall in love with his bride. In the meantime Harding's jealous sister, now unhappily married, has been living beyond her means and needs money fast. She blurts out the truth of the marriage trap when Harding refuses to again pay off her debts. Powell leaves, disillusioned. Harding's father has arranged for a huge business deal to be offered to Powell at a formal dinner party at their home that very night. As Powell is boarding a ship to Europe, his frazzled wife is at home greeting guests and trying to maintain composure. One by one, each guest is involved in a personal crisis and is pulled away from the dinner party from hell, presided over by blustery Reginald Owen as the butler. I can't go on with out spoiling the best joke. This forgotten film is four stars all the way. I saw this film in March of 2004 at the CINEFEST film festival in Syracuse, NY. Thank god for film festivals like this one that make rare films like this available and the folks who provide comments to IMDB for others to share. Please support the IMDB and early film festivals!

I just caught this sixty-nine minute comedy/romance from RKO (released to American theaters in 1933) on TCM as part of their lost-and-found spot tonight. Very fun picture directed by John Cromwell and starring Ann Harding, William Powell, and Lucille Browne. I am not very familiar with Ms. Harding's career, but I must say that I was very much impressed with her performance here. Actresses today should watch her in this film and take lessons. Her facial expressions had so much depth and realism, something that we, with few exceptions, do not see in modern actors. Powell holds his own as a playboy wanting to do little with his life besides play Polo and women. This was a nice warm-up spot for Powell until he would make his most legendary 'The Thin Man' ('34) the following year. DOUBLE HARNESS has a heck of a lot to offer in its 69 minute runtime. Let's hope we see this one appear on DVD soon.

Really well done adaptation of the play to the screen. Rather wordy as was most early 1930's films, but quite charming nevertheless. And, indeed, rather risque for its day since there is a supposition at one point that Ann Harding's character, Joan, in trying to trap William Powell into marriage, is giving pre-marital favors and is actually caught in the process. The chemistry between Harding and Powell is quite good and it is unfortunate that the two were never paired again in another film.

Just saw this on TCM and I have to say I was floored by Harding's performance, who I saw here for the first time. It takes real talent to act in melodramatic scenes and deliver them so naturally that the viewer never questions your authenticity. Harding adds hundreds of little touches - a gesture here, an eye movement there, that make her performance show you what natural acting is all about. In fact, she makes everyone else pale by comparison - Powell is his usual charming self, but next to Harding he comes off as a typical Hollywood performer. And talk about sophistication! Harding has to be the ultimate in "cool". I can only guess the reason she didn't become as big as Hepburn or Davis is that she didn't fight for better films. I'll be sure to look for more of her work soon.

This movie is an example of the kind of film that just can't be made anymore. At least not from a major studio. A compact, fast paced script that is based totally on character interaction. Ann Harding is cool as ice. Beautiful and smart, her character Joan Colby carry the film. William Powell doesn't have much to do except react to her, but he does it splendidly. He plays love interest John Fletcher with a world weary yet charming air, as only he could do.

The relationship between the two is introduced to the audience as a thinly veiled roll in the hay, interrupted by a father figure. Pretty racy for 1933 standards. From there, marital relations under the strain of a worsening economy drive the story. All very relevant today 70 plus years later. Even the quaint idea of "tricking" someone into getting married seems to fly here.

Well cast from top to bottom, each player does well to move the story along. The production value is somewhat above normal "B-movie" standards, with a few minor outdoor shots.

Watching this movie was almost like watching a ballet dance, with Ann Harding moving between each scene with so much grace she fairly shimmers. The other characters swirl around her, each flying by barely grazing her, in a well choreographed, almost clock like, movement. William Powell stays out of her way, literally and figuratively, till the end of the film.

If you love old movies this one is worth your 67 minutes.