A Ceia das Donzelas

The best thing one can say about LOVE BEFORE BREAKFAST is that it looks wonderful with sparkling cinematography by Ted Tetzlaff, lovely gowns for Lombard by Travis Banton, and stunning art direction by Albert S. D'Agostino, making one forget this film was from Universal, then not one of the major studios and only occasionally producing "A" movies such as this. The movie wonderfully captures the privileged life of the rich with ocean liners, elegant New York nightclubs, weekends yachting with friends or private horseback riding trails. There's no Depression on this planet with executives buying $2,000 worth of charity raffle tickets without batting an eye which surely appealed to the considerably less comfortable general public of the era. Add to the mix a beautiful, appealing heroine in the form of Carole Lombard and what more could you want. Well maybe a better script, better leading men, and more appealing characters.

Lombard stars as a socialite engaged to rising businessman Cesar Romero somewhat unaware of the obsession another acquaintance, ultra rich Preston Foster, has for her. Foster buys out the oil company Romero works for so he can give him a promotion and get him out the way - a two-year stint as a vice president in the Japan offices!! The brash, unctuous but supposedly (according to the screenwriter) agreeable Foster can't help but brag about his machinations to Lombard moments after Romero is on his way to Japan, to which Lombard is quite naturally repelled. Considerable time is then devoted to further control-freak methods by Foster to win Lombard who comes to despise the man she (accurately) calls a "little Napoleon". Eventually, he wears her down and she agrees to marry him if blatantly admitting she is not in love with him. Having won his prize, Foster is happy enough with this but soon decides he would rather win her completely so he brings Romero back to New York, but he still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The Preston Foster character is so charmless and controlling it's good to see Lombard fighting him every step of the way but it's difficult to see any supposed "good points" the man is supposed to have. Most curious is Lombard's mother Janet Beecher favoritism for Foster of her daughter's two suitors, is it simply because he is the far richer beau? At one point late in the film Foster is actually quite indifferent to Lombard's safety which appalls Beecher if only for a moment. Couldn't she then see the real man whom her daughter was well familiar with? Lombard is terrific in this movie, raising it to the level of a fairly entertaining movie, one can imagine what a total misfire it would be without her. Some reviewers have commented she gets rather abrasive herself into the film but given her non-stop harassment in the guise of love (or more accurately, obsession) from Foster, I'd say her hostility and attitude are more than justified. Foster is quite unappealing but it's not his fault as much as the screenwriter's take on the character, although his lack of appeal is undercut by the blandness and shallowness of Lombard's other suitor, Cesar Romero. Joyce Compton has a cute bit as a visiting southern débutante whom Lombard briefly entangles in one of her payback stunts against Foster.

The movie quickly wraps things up with a quickie ending that would seem direct steal from Lombard's classic MY MAN GODFREY if not for the fact that this movie predated that legendary film by several months.

The film's premise is straightforward: Lombard plays Kay Colby, a young socialite convinced she's in love with Bill Wadsworth (Cesar Romero), a fellow quickly identified as the douche who is all wrong for her. Her Mr. Right is Preston Foster's Scott Miller, who happens to own the oil company Wadsworth works for.

We quickly discover Miller is in love with Colby. He's also manipulative and sneaky, for as the film opens we find Miller is purposefully sending her rather self-centred beau away on assignment on a ship to Japan . And he manages to finagle it so that his own Ms. Wrong, a yappy countess with an entourage of similarly disposed dogs, is going on the same ship. Colby and Wadsworth bump into him (more accurately, they bump into his parked car and then him) at the dock.

So the stage is set for an epic 2nd act featuring the screwball comedy battle of wills, which will steadily escalate in madness and will only let up in the last minute.

The film is not as wicked as 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith', which has very similar sort of screwball formula (sneaky guy pursuing girl as opposed to sneaky girl pursuing guy ala 'Bringing up Baby'), but like that film, this one features Lombard doing what she does best: make you want to kiss and kill her at the same time. She's so good that it makes up for the inadequacies of the leading man, Preston Foster, who is not a good enough listener as an actor to create the sort of chemistry a William Powell or Cary Grant could form with an ugly lamp (see Powell's work in 'My Man Godfrey' opposite Lombard, whom he had not too long before filming divorced!). Foster's all right when we don't have to watch him react to Lombard, but his comic timing and general shtick is uneven. I suspect the director must have figured this out, as the camera is kind in allowing her to create the illusion of a relationship twixt the two a fair amount of the time.

Another interesting phenomenon is the visceral similarity in appearance of the two men (they look alike and both have dark hair with trimmed mustaches) vying for Lombard's Colby, which was aesthetically dissonant for me. I think at the very least one of the staches could have gone, just so douche-bag and good guy don't become perceptually associated in our minds.

The indulgence of quibbles aside, the film's moments of charm and Lombard's mastery of screwball comedy's delectable form of erotica make it well worth seeing if you're fond of the genre.

I like Carole Lombard. I think she's one of the most talented, funny actresses ever - and, although this one could not be considered one of her classic movies, it still is fun to watch. A lot of people complain about Preston Foster's role in this movie. It's true that the chemistry they're supposed to have doesn't always work, but I don't think it's the actor's fault - the script is just not that good. It seems to me like we land into the middle of a film. Carole's fiancé is going away to Japan because Preston wants her to himself - and, because he wants her to himself, he keeps finding selfish, annoying ways to get closer. To some up, no one gets why Carole is supposed to be in love with a self-centered, egotistic man. And yet I still like this movie. I pop it up whenever I can't find anything better to do. It's easy-going, if not perfect, and it's amusing. The scene where they're taken in and we discover that Preston's punched Carole is a treat. In conclusion, Carole has made a lot of better films and some of them can be easily found now a days thanks to that great invention that is the DVD (what would we old-movie lovers do if it wasn't for that?), but this one is still worth checking out. I guess anything with her is.

In between her stunning hits with Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard found time to get loaned out to Universal from Paramount for My Man Godfrey and Love Before Breakfast. The first of course is a comedy classic with nice social overtones. The second is an all right comedy, but not up to the standards she set with Fred MacMurray at Paramount.

It's the usual romantic triangle with Carole caught between Cesar Romero who has her and Preston Foster who wants her. Both of them are in the oil business and Foster has just bought out Cesar's company and now he works for Foster. To clear the field he sends Cesar off to Japan to their new branch office, but Carole thinks that's not playing fair. So Preston's going to have to put on a big campaign to win her.

Of course that's helped along when Carole sees a photograph of Romero in Tokyo looking like he's living it up. But the rather arrogant Foster overplays his hand a bit. It's a close race right up to the finish to see who will get Carole, but I think it's rather obvious.

Some criticism was made of Foster and while he didn't exactly do much in the way of comedy, I think he handled it well in this film. Romero was his charming best and two performances in the cast also deserve to be singled out. One is Janet Beecher as Lombard's wise mother and the other is Joyce Compton as an empty headed southern belle who Lombard almost foists on Foster.

Love Before Breakfast is a bit of a dip in the career of Carole Lombard, but not anything her fans would notice, either back in 1936 or now.

I enjoyed "Love Before Breakfast" very much and think with a slight re-write it could have earned a 9, as it was a nice little screwball comedy.

The film begins with a very rich industrialist (Preston Foster) buying an oil company just so he can transfer a guy overseas (Cesar Romero) in order to have a chance at the girl (Carole Lombard). Now Foster isn't a total jerk--the transfer is a promotion for Romero and he's thrilled to take it. The plan is for Romero to stay in Japan for two years and then return to marry Lombard. However, it's pretty obvious that this relationship has some problems--not the least of which is the conniving Foster. Now it could be easy to dislike Foster since he is manipulative and a bit of a stalker, however, the writers did a good job making his character likable. He's rich but a pretty swell guy. Heck, I might have married him if he'd asked! But, as for Lombard, she gives him a very hard time--after all, Foster IS responsible for the boyfriend going overseas. And, after a while, she does come to like Foster and is willing to marry him instead. However, Foster isn't happy with this--after all, if Romero was home, would she still be willing to do this? So, he brings Romero back and treats him with every kindness to allow Lombard a chance to choose. Who she chooses, how and why is something you'll just have to see for yourself.

I liked this story very much, but did have a complaint about one thing. I think that Lombard's character was made a bit too volatile and annoying. It got bad enough towards the end that I could not believe that Foster would still want such a nasty...um...'lady'. As for the rest of the cast, they are quite dandy. I liked Lombard's mother and the dog (an adorable little thing), but I especially liked the small part played by Richard Carle--he wasn't in the movie a lot, but was great in the scenes where he appeared.

Overall, an enjoyable little comedy only marred, very slightly, by a female character that is, at times, just a bit too annoying and snippy. Still, give it a look--it's a nice forgotten little film.