The Goose and the Gander

A silly but smoothly directed farce that throws together adultery, smallpox and jewel thieves acted by a game cast against the usual luxurious backdrops. Routine but fun.

This is an interesting little Kay Francis programmer, co-starring her frequent leading man George Brent. It's a small and delicate Warners melodrama. It aroused my interest because of Francis.

I liked "Goose and the Gander" but it is not one of Francis' best roles. The plot is a bit baffling and sometimes hard to follow but it is fun and entertaining picture thanks to the charm of Francis & Brent.

This is one of three films Francis made with Brent in 1935. The others are "Living on Velvet" and "Stranded".

... And a shining example of how to do precode in the production code era. Georgiana (Kay Francis) is vacationing at a seaside resort. She accidentally overhears Bob McNear (George Brent) and Betty (Genevieve Tobin) planning a rendezvous. It's actually Betty planning one, as she wants to get one over on her husband. She's in love with the idea, not with Bob. Georgiana is amused by this conversation but doesn't think anything more of it since she doesn't know these people until she later runs into her ex-husband, Ralph (Ralph Forbes), in the resort ballroom that night. He is happy to see her, says he regrets divorcing her two years before, and points out his current wife, across the room, who broke up the marriage. It turns out that this current wife is Betty!

So Georgiana gets an idea. She will fix it so that Betty and Bob wind up in the same place that her ex-husband Ralph does, showing Betty up for what she is, and thus getting Ralph back. Like Betty, she is in love with the idea not the man. How she goes about arranging this is very creative and funny.

So, this movie might have been less fun with Georgiana the only one in the complete know for the entire film, so a couple of jewel thieves are inserted into all of this who also wind up at Betty and Bob's destination, with Georgiana having no idea who they are and what they are doing there. Meanwhile Bob and Georgiana, previously just mildly infatuated, begin to develop real feelings for one another.

So many romantic comedies did everything wrong when their wings were clipped by the production code. This one is almost perfect by being genuinely funny and implying things right up to the edge of what was allowed at the time. The cast is perfect. Brent and Francis always had great chemistry, Tobin is delightfully wicked in a harmless kind of way if that is possible, Forbes is clueless as Georgiana's first husband - a real stuffed shirt, and honorable mention has to go to William Austin in a very small but memorable role as Ralph's brother. He manages to be, in every way possible, a completely unappealing man. I'd highly recommend this one.

Delightful comedy in which Kay Francis is a divorcee who devises a cunning plot to get her ex husband back from his new wife (Genevive Tobin) whom she overhears planning a rendezvous with another man (George Brent). Things get very complicated and several people end up pretending to be someone else, including a couple of jewel thieves. With all the complications, imposters etc, this film reminds me a bit of a story by P.G. Wodehouse, his books were always rich with imposters, and he had more than one jewel thieving couple. He could have written this entertaining tale, it even has a formidable elderly aunt (Helen Lowell). Great fun.

Kay Francis is a divorcee who happens to overhear her ex husband's new wife (Genevieve Tobin) plotting an assignation with her would be lover (George Brent). Francis hatches an elaborate plot to lure Tobin and Brent to her holiday home, and then expose them to her ex, so that she can get him back. However, things start to go wrong, not least because Francis begins to be attracted to Brent, and he to her. and the plot becomes even more confused by a couple of jewel thieves, until just about everyone is pretending to be someone else, in fact it reminds me a bit of a PG.Wodehouse novel, which generally contain several imposters. It is all quite hilarious.