Serviço de Luxo

1938's "Service De Luxe" found Constance Bennett working at Universal in a formula quickie designed to capitalize on her recent hit "Topper," surprisingly upstaged by a screen newcomer direct from Broadway's "Victoria Regina," a 27 year old Vincent Price! Even he seemed to realize that his aristocratic bearing and distinguished tones weren't suited to romantic leads, so it was no surprise that villains like Shelby Carpenter in "Laura" would become his early stock in trade; better still, that a small company in American International Pictures would put him under contract at the age of 50 to do a series of films based on Edgar Allan Poe in which he could stretch his wings with tragic figures haunted by personal demons, sometimes heroic, sometimes evil, yet always engaging and even romantic. That is part of what makes this debut such a curiosity, to enjoy the chemistry he shares with his fetching leading lady, though he appears miscast in the role of a country boy who yearns to make something of himself in the big city. Robert Wade (Price) journeys to New York City to obtain backing for a new tractor he hopes to market, and meets Constance during the voyage, her character Helen Murphy the owner/manager of the Dorothy Madison Company, famous for seeing to the needs of their wealthy (mostly male) clientele. She is very good at her job, aided by loyal assistant Pearl (Helen Broderick, wisecracking mother of actor Broderick Crawford), but longs to meet a gentleman who can actually fend for himself, while Wade believes her to be the helpless type who needs a man to take care of her. He confesses that a lifetime of being surrounded by adoring but pushy aunts has made him wary of bossy females, so she naturally can't bear to spill the beans about her career, playing along in lovesick fashion until using her influence to gain him a contract for his new tractor. An accidental engagement is enough for her to come clean, but in being rejected by the man she loves is then called upon to set up his own wedding! Light and frothy but with this unique pairing an interesting match, sluggish to start until Price enters near the 20 minute mark, with one fascinating moment of foreshadowing where he tries to gently dissuade his unlikely fiancee by pretending that madness runs in his family, perhaps a blueprint for Roderick Usher.

This very silly attempt at a screwball comedy from Universal Pictures has a first-rate cast of actors doing their best with a second-rate script directed with a heavy hand by Roland Lee. Worth watching if only to see the very lovely Constance Bennett, one the best comediennes of the 30s, who is suitably frantic, often charming as the career girl in the Roz Russell mode, too busy for love until Mr. Right comes along. Vincent Price is hardly believable as the country hick Gary Cooper did to perfection. The plot gets sillier and sillier, but there are moments of mild entertainment for those not too demanding. Watching it, you are reminded of better films made about the same time, but even second-rate screwball is better than no screwball at all.

I've been aware of this film's existence since I was a teenager and after 45 years have finally caught up with it. 'Service de Luxe' is a competent assembly-line romantic comedy with Constance Bennett her usual glamorous blonde self bolstered by a vintage supporting cast (Helen Broderick is particularly good). That it is remembered today is due to its handsome young leading man fresh from Broadway snapped up by Universal.

The title will be familiar to his many admirers as the film debut of the 27 year-old Vincent Price, starting at the top playing a romantic lead in an 'A' feature opposite an established star. Already sporting the pencil-line moustache that was to come and go for the next twenty years, the young Vincent gracefully towers over the rest of the cast (even Mischa Auer!), moves comfortably in front of the camera and of course speaks in that wonderful purring baritone.

Playing a young inventor designing a new type of tractor, Vincent basically serves as eye candy for Connie Bennett and straight man to Charlie Ruggles and Mischa Auer. With odd exceptions, as when he attempts to discourage the amorous advances of Joy Hodges by telling her that madness runs in his family, we get little sense of just how deliriously funny he could later be in more eccentric roles, or how satanic a villain he would be; he would never play such a conventional lead again. Just two films later he was cast by this film's director, Rowland V. Lee, as the Duke of Clarence in 'Tower of London', in which he was murdered by Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff and it was already clear that he was not destined to continue to play uncomplicated romantic leads. After signing up with Fox in 1940 he would kept busy for the next seven years in eye-catching supporting roles in big budget prestige productions. And the rest is history.

Seeing Vincent Price fall in love on a cruise ship on his way to New York makes you think that this film will be set on a luxury cruise ship. As it happens, the woman he falls in love with is the managing director of a dating agency who arranges marriages. There should have been more scenes on the ship because they fell in love too quickly. It needed more character development to make their alliance more credible. As it turns out, it's not a bad film, neither is it a good film because of what's missing. It's an okay film which could have been better, but that's not down to the actors, it was down to the script. For Vincent Price fans it's watching to see what he did after 'Tower of London'.

Constance Bennett and her aunt Helen Broderick run the Madison Agency, a collection of women who help out people with lots of dollars and no sense. Miss Bennett is sent upstate by Lionel Belmore to stop his nephew Vincent Price (in his screen debut) from coming to New York. She stops the wrong man. After Price knocks her hat into the Hudson, they swiftly fall in love. However, he doesn't like bossy women, so she has to hide behind Miss Broderick as she gets him an appointment to sell his three-way tractor -- whatever that is -- to Charles Ruggles, whose ditzy daughter, Joy Hodges, develops a passion for the immensely tall Price. Meanwhile, Mischa Auer and his spirit guide teach Ruggles how to be a chef.

You can see how this will easily become the makings of a romantic comedy, and with a good script by various hands who include Vera Caspary. Ruggles and Auer are delightful, Miss Broderick plays the sort of role that Eve Arden would assume, and Price and Miss Bennett are very amusing, playing their roles mostly straight. Rowland Lee is better remembered these days for his horror movies, but demonstrates the good studio director's ability to do well with any assignment handed him.