Le roi et la figurante

Overlong but fun to watch. Joan Blondell has great skill and beauty while Edward Everitt Horton's flutters and double takes always lift a film

If you like 1930s romantic comedies, you will probably enjoy this movie. I almost didn't watch it because of a few negative comments on this website, but I'm glad I decided to give it a try. The dialogue reflects Groucho Marx's style. The performances by Joan Blondell and Fernand Gravet give the movie a warmer, more personable, romantic feeling than Groucho is known for. If you don't set your expectations too high after seeing Groucho's name associated with the movie, you will enjoy the movie very much. I certainly did, and I'd like to watch it again with my husband.

Enjoyed this classic 1937 film which was a very cute comedy about a King played by Fernand Gravet,(Alfred Bruger VII) who falls in love with a chorus girl played by Joan Blondell, (Miss Dorothy Ellis). Alfred Bruger the King fell in love almost immediately after viewing her as a chorus girl and wound up taking her to his home and she locked him in his own bedroom and would not let him out. There is plenty of comical games being played between this couple and they both fall deeply in love with each other. The King even hires an entire cruise ship to capture Dorothy Ellis in an effort to propose to her and never let her get away. Edward Everett Horton,(Count Humbert Evel Bruger) gave a great supporting role and added plenty of comedy in many scenes. If you look close, you will see Jane Wyman, (the former wife of President Ronald Regan).

King Alfred VII (Fernand Gravey) was deposed and now has little to do with himself but drink himself into oblivion and go to the Follies. His purposeless life is going to kill him if something doesn't happen soon. This something is one night when he does his typical routine---go to the Follies and get drunk. So how does it end up different and how does Dorothy (Joan Blondell) help him snap out of his ennui? And what do the ex-King's two most loyal retainers have to do with this?

This film has a most unusual writing team...Norma Krasna and Groucho Marx. Yes, THAT Groucho Marx! I had no idea he'd co-written a film. You really can't tell it has the Groucho touch, but it is a nice little romance. It also helps that Edward Everett Horton was there for support-- he's always grand in anything. Overall, cute and well worth seeing.

Joan Blondell is sexy, in a frumpy sort of way, and she somehow manages to be both pretty and ugly at the same time. Think of her as the Lisa Kudrow of her day. In this movie Joan acts opposite Fernand Gravet, Belgium's greatest import since waffles. Try not to think of him at all. And they both act opposite Edward Everett Horton, a whimsically asexual chap who elevated flittering to an art form. Think of him as the Jm J. Bullock of his day. But, of course, the actors are secondary to the screenwriter in this pleasantly forgettable film, as the man behind the typewriter was none other than Groucho Marx, the Groucho Marx of his day. Groucho's contributions to the screenplay are most noticeable near the beginning, in scenes of forced banter between Gravet and Horton, which only proves how unfunny Groucho the writer can be without Groucho the actor delivering the lines. If you're truly interested in how funny Groucho the writer can be, then avoid this film and read his autobiography Groucho and Me, or The Groucho Letters. If you want to see Joan Blondell in something good, rent A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. And if you absolutely must have a dose of Edward Everett Horton, watch Bullwinkle.