Mais la chair est faible

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.