Aside from the blatant promotion of the rape myth and thoroughly unlikable characters, the film is STILL watchable.
This film has several story elements that simply wouldn't fly today....plus the two male leads are unlikable pond scum. These would make this film a hard sell for most of today's audiences. First the story elements that are now taboo. Robert Montgomery plays a man who falls for a woman instantly and because he KNOWS he must marry her, he pursues her in a manner that clearly would have him arrested for sexual harassment, stalking and possibly rape if he continued in such a fashion! This was all meant to be cute but comes off as creepy today--and it's interesting to see what people thought was okay back in 1932. To make things worse, late in the film, Montgomery slaps his woman caveman style! I am sure N.O.W. would have a few things to say about this. Second, Montgomery and his father (an oddly miscast C. Aubrey Smith) are both leeches who live off rich society women--sort of like man-hos. This is hardly endearing, though once again the writers didn't seem to get this! Talk about creating a hole from which your characters have to extricate themselves!!! Well, somehow, the film is pleasant enough that if you can ignore the huge problems with the characters, it is still a decent time-passer. The writing AT TIMES is decent (particularly the non-stalker dialog) and the film has a few clever moments...though Edward Everett Horton is a bit wasted in the film. It's a glossy MGM production...with multiple problems.
- planktonrules
- Jul 24, 2010