Hard to say what could be a spoiler here, as the title gives away the entire plot to anyone who has watched one or two classic comedies-- and the first five minutes give it away to someone who hasn't. The two leads enter, for business reasons, into an in-name- only marriage that turns into a real one. It also doesn't take Albert Einstein to figure out what becomes of the two supporting players.
A sparkling script could have compensated for the predictability of the story, but this one just lumbers on from one lame incident to another to drag out the phony marriage in a way that obeys the Production Code. The one that breaks it is a cliché that has itself been the basis of several other movies, and is no less plausible for that. Brian Aherne--the poor man's David Niven--has no sex appeal, or at least no chemistry with Rosalind Russell, and Virginia Bruce isn't half as good-looking as the other characters claim she is, at least not in her hideous pompadour hairstyle. Robert Benchley has no funny lines, is asleep through part of the movie, and looks as if he is trying to sleep through the rest.
But then there's Roz. Rosalind Russell was a fabulous comedian of the glossy, unflappable school, a superwoman who never (at least, so far as I can remember) gave up meaningful work to be the little wifey baking cookies (although, annoyingly, the movie does show her taking some kind of "delicious" baked goods out of the oven in her career-woman kitchen. What funny lines the picture does have are given to her--indeed, most are created by her, because, on paper, they are just ordinary lines, and would remain so without her crisp delivery, rich implication, and more-than-perfect timing.
You wouldn't be wrong to think this movie is not worth the time of anyone except Rosalind Russell fans. On the other hand, if you don't know her work, this could make you one.
A sparkling script could have compensated for the predictability of the story, but this one just lumbers on from one lame incident to another to drag out the phony marriage in a way that obeys the Production Code. The one that breaks it is a cliché that has itself been the basis of several other movies, and is no less plausible for that. Brian Aherne--the poor man's David Niven--has no sex appeal, or at least no chemistry with Rosalind Russell, and Virginia Bruce isn't half as good-looking as the other characters claim she is, at least not in her hideous pompadour hairstyle. Robert Benchley has no funny lines, is asleep through part of the movie, and looks as if he is trying to sleep through the rest.
But then there's Roz. Rosalind Russell was a fabulous comedian of the glossy, unflappable school, a superwoman who never (at least, so far as I can remember) gave up meaningful work to be the little wifey baking cookies (although, annoyingly, the movie does show her taking some kind of "delicious" baked goods out of the oven in her career-woman kitchen. What funny lines the picture does have are given to her--indeed, most are created by her, because, on paper, they are just ordinary lines, and would remain so without her crisp delivery, rich implication, and more-than-perfect timing.
You wouldn't be wrong to think this movie is not worth the time of anyone except Rosalind Russell fans. On the other hand, if you don't know her work, this could make you one.