Hard to Get

"Hard to Get" is what you might call a low-key comedy. There are some pratfalls, but the action is mostly at a relaxed pace, not frantic or riotous. Olivia de Havilland (as Margaret) and Dick Powell (as Bill) are delightful as the couple who find romance in a most unexpected (to them) way. She tears out of the house in a pique of rebelliousness but finds that the car's fuel tank is low. When she stops to get gas at a combination garage/motor court, she tries to charge the expense, but the attendant--who does not know her--refuses to extend her credit.

She's actually from a wealthy family, but Bill doesn't know that and he forces her to work for the cost of the gasoline by making beds and dusting in the motor court's bungalows. She concocts a scheme for getting even, which involves her father, Charles Winninger (Ben Richards).

If you believe the film, CEOs--like Mr. Winninger--spend their days wasting time or indulging in whimsical activities, like wrestling with their butlers, but it makes for a funny story.

The cast is excellent. Together they create a light-hearted comedy that revolves around a growing romance.

This is one of those films from the thirties where no effort is made to have a realistic story or characters, and where the purpose is purely fun. The film is highly amusing, although it has its corny moments. This is a rare glimpse of Olivia de Havilland as she was before GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) changed her career in the following year. Her co-star here is Dick Powell. A very bad makeup person has made Dick Powell all but unrecognisable by excessive makeup round his eyes, and has done no favours for Miss de Havilland either, as she is also made to look somewhat artificial, despite her costumes working very well and showing inspired touches. As is only to be expected, both stars excel in this romantic comedy and spark off each other nicely. The film also contains a wonderful performance by the British actor Melville Cooper as a droll butler, not unlike Jeeves (and probably modelled on him), who is even allowed the last word at the end. Charlie Winniger also gives one of his very good performances (for he could be a bit uneven and 'required direction') as Miss de Havilland's eccentric father. A famous song by Johnny Mercer was written specially for this film, 'You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby' ('… cause, baby, you're beautiful now.') The film also features an amazing scene where Dick Powell in blackface does a marvellous imitation of Al Jolson singing 'Sonny Boy'. This film was certainly unconstrained in its casting about for new ways to laugh. Dick Powell also disguises himself as a woman scrubbing a floor in an office building, descends on a rope down the side of a New York skyscraper to enter an office window, and other antics. At one point Winniger is taken to the top of a skyscraper riding on a steel beam, as 'the elevators are not installed yet'. He holds a business meeting several hundred feet up, balancing on the beams, while Powell inserts rivets. Any wild situation will do for this story! At one point, the action is suddenly interrupted and we cut to Miss de Havilland and Powell sitting in a row-boat together at night, rowing across a lake in Central Park and falling in love. Some linking scenes must have been cut to get them there, but no one seems to mind the lack of continuity. Anything goes! Miss de Havilland starts as a rich spoilt brat who screams when she does not get her way. She falls out with Dick Powell, who works in a garage, over a bill for $3.48. Powell refuses her credit, and says if she were to fail to pay, he would 'not be able to afford lunch for a week'. That says a great deal about the value of money in 1938, if you could eat lunch for a week on $3.48. Miss de Havilland later falls in love with Powell, in a shockingly short period of time and with a lack of motivating circumstances. But she manages to switch from being a fiery-eyed bitch, passing through a phase of being a cunning schemer seeking vengeance, to a doe-eyed and love-struck maiden, with all the ease of an Olympic pentathlete who can do anything and who changes sports without noticing that he has stopped running 100 metres and is now throwing the javelin (or in this case, Cupid's dart). The film was directed by Ray Enright, who started as a gag writer for Mack Sennett, became an editor, and worked his way up to director. He never entered the top ranks but made lots of movies, retiring in 1956. If you want to have some laughs and be entertained, and do not mind films from the thirties, this will do nicely.

It's hard to believe that this little Warner Bros. comedy was made a year before de Havilland played Melanie in Gone with the Wind. She is such a feisty, saucy little minx that it's no wonder Dick Powell has to tame her. Proof that de Havilland was not just a fluffy ingenue is the fact that three films later she was playing the demure, ladylike Melanie. Makes you wonder why Jack Warner never fully appreciated her talent. Anyway, this is an enjoyable comedy about a brash architect working as a gas station attendant who treats a spoiled heiress rather harshly when she has no money to pay for gas. She decides to turn the tables on him and therein lies the germ of a plot. Charles Winninger and Melville Cooper are delightful in supporting roles, as is Penny Singleton as a dim-witted maid in the wealthy man's household. Too bad this one isn't available on video. Like another early de Havilland comedy, It's Love I'm After, it deserves to be seen by viewers who don't have Turner Classic Movies on their cable stations.

... and exhibit A as to why both Dick Powell and Olivia De Havilland ultimately fled from Warner Brothers for meatier roles. Still, it has its good points.

Maggie Richards (De Havilland) has just had a fight with her mother about not wanting to go to Newport for the summer, like most rich mothers and daughters did back in the day. As a result Maggie flees the scene by borrowing the valet's car and doesn't get far before she realizes she's out of gas. She stops at a gas station, lets the attendant (Dick Powell as Bill) fill up her car, and then tells him to "charge it", claiming to be the daughter of a wealthy man. The car isn't hers, she has no ID, and the money would come out of Bill's pocket if she never comes back, so he insists she return the gas or cough up the money, which she doesn't have since she ran out without her purse. When she tries to flee, Bill makes her make up the beds in all ten bungalows of the accompanying motor lodge to pay the bill, and hits her on the dernier with a broom when she tries to escape. Humiliated, Maggie vows revenge, but back home Dad (Charles Winninger) just is not interested in getting involved in this petty scrape.

Maggie returns the next day and gives Bill what he wants - a completely fabricated story about how sorry she is and tells him she is really wealthy Maggie Richards' maid. Bill buys this, dates her, and she tells him the password to get in to see Mr. Richards (Maggie's father), head of Federal Oil and Gas who might back his idea about building motor courts along with his company's gas stations. That password, however, was Mr. Richards' nickname in the oil fields when he started out in the business, plus Maggie knows her dad is really riled by strangers taking advantage of a password meant for old friends - much like a telemarketer calling an unlisted number. Mr. Richards gives Bill the business alright, but not the business Bill was hoping for. Maggie has her revenge, but she's starting to care for Bill and feel pangs of conscience about what she's done, but not before she has enlarged the ruse to ridiculous proportions so that if Bill finds out, she'll probably never see him again. How does this all work out? Watch and find out.

This could have been a better comedy, and it is pleasant enough as is, but there are some real inanities thrown into the situation, some funny some tiresome. One of funny parts is having Penny Singleton as the maid and Maggie switch roles for an evening. Penny is just perfect as a girl all dressed up like a plutocrat's daughter, but still with a working class demeanor and a rather limited and slanged vocabulary. This was the last film she did before she became famous as Blondie and she shows some of that comic flair in this film. The tiresome part of the film has to do with Mr. Richards, supposedly a self-made man, wanting to waste the day away with fifteen cent bets boxing, wrestling, and fencing his valet who always bests him. It's just not funny and seems out of character for a self-made man who had to be hard charging to get where he was. Why would he want to waste his time with such a silly pursuit? Recommended for fans of De Havilland and Powell, and for those great character actors who always added a touch of spice to these 1930's films.

A spoiled rich girl wants revenge on the gas station attendant who humiliated her - he wants to sell his idea for auto courts across America; both are about to learn that some things in life are very HARD TO GET.

This is a wonderful, hilarious screwball comedy, boasting good performances, genuine laughs & fine production values. Witty & winning, it is a shame it is so obscure today.

Dick Powell appears to be having a terrific time as the young go-getter with the big ideas. As eager to please as a puppy dog, he enthusiastically hurls himself into the zany plot permutations. Whether impersonating Jolson singing ‘Sonny Boy,' or introducing the song hit ‘You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby,' Powell is never less than entertaining.

Lovely Olivia de Havilland is a pure pleasure to watch as she slowly bends to Powell's winning ways. Considered more of a dramatic actress, her considerable comedic talents are on full display here. The scene where she attempts to serve a fancy dinner while impersonating her maid is a quiet riot.

An unusually large cast of supporting players help move the fun right along: cuddly Charles Winninger as Olivia's physical fitness mad dad; Isabel Jeans & Bonita Granville as his insufferably snooty wife & youngest daughter; Melville Cooper as Winninger's long-suffering valet; Allen Jenkins as Powell's dimwitted buddy; Thurston Hall as a banker with a dangerous love of practical joking; Grady Sutton as Olivia's flaccid suitor; and Penny Singleton as a wonderfully unsophisticated servant.

Movie mavens will recognize Arthur Housman as a polite inebriate, and Arthur Hoyt, Vera Lewis & Jimmy Conlin as attendees at a flower lovers' banquet, all uncredited.

Rear projection screening was the bane of the cinema for years, as its patently fake visuals tended to distract from the action. HARD TO GET, therefore, deserves some credit for its splendidly vertiginous high-rise construction segment, which really does grab hold of the viewer's spine.