This feels more like one of those mid thirties English comedies than an American picture. It's a superb fast moving adventure-comedy-romance and it's thoroughly entertaining.
James Stewart and Claudette Colbert make a fantastic double act. They're perfect together especially Miss Colbert who honestly gives one of the funniest performances of her career.
Surprising to me, this was a massive flop back in '39 and even today most critics really dislike it. They are of course all wrong but I think its unpopularity might be because unlike most of those screwball comedies of the late'30s, it's not a rom-com. We're not watching it wondering when the two leads are going to get together. It's not sweet, it's not sentimental and it's as unlike a Frank Capra film as you can imagine. Without all that silly romance to worry about it can just be funny. Both Jimmy Stewart and Claudette Colbert are as mercenary and selfish as each other but they're not unlikeable, they're seem real and quite human. They're not the ideal 1930s American couple but maybe today they could be.
The story and the script are sharp, witty and clever. How Ben Hecht could have been writing the most romantic prose ever set to paper (WUTHERING HEIGHTS) in addition to doctoring GONE WITH THE WIND at the same time as writing this acerbic, silly, cynical comedy in the same vein as THE FRONT PAGE is quite astonishing. I'm not a fan of everything he wrote but this is top of the game stuff.
Another characteristic which some people take objection to is its speed - it's very hectic and fast talking with no time to relax thanks to this being made by "One-take" Woody Van Dyke who made some of the best movies of the decade (including THE THIN MAN which in my opinion is nothing like as good as this.) Why people criticise this for being too fast and too loud and then praise to the heavens the inferior but louder and faster TWENTIETH CENTURY makes no sense.
I guess comedy is personal. If you think DUCK SOUP is better than DAY AT THE RACES or think BOMBSHELL is rubbish and THE THIN MAN isn't half as funny as Jessie Matthew's in IT'S LOVE AGAIN then like me, you might find this brilliant!
James Stewart and Claudette Colbert make a fantastic double act. They're perfect together especially Miss Colbert who honestly gives one of the funniest performances of her career.
Surprising to me, this was a massive flop back in '39 and even today most critics really dislike it. They are of course all wrong but I think its unpopularity might be because unlike most of those screwball comedies of the late'30s, it's not a rom-com. We're not watching it wondering when the two leads are going to get together. It's not sweet, it's not sentimental and it's as unlike a Frank Capra film as you can imagine. Without all that silly romance to worry about it can just be funny. Both Jimmy Stewart and Claudette Colbert are as mercenary and selfish as each other but they're not unlikeable, they're seem real and quite human. They're not the ideal 1930s American couple but maybe today they could be.
The story and the script are sharp, witty and clever. How Ben Hecht could have been writing the most romantic prose ever set to paper (WUTHERING HEIGHTS) in addition to doctoring GONE WITH THE WIND at the same time as writing this acerbic, silly, cynical comedy in the same vein as THE FRONT PAGE is quite astonishing. I'm not a fan of everything he wrote but this is top of the game stuff.
Another characteristic which some people take objection to is its speed - it's very hectic and fast talking with no time to relax thanks to this being made by "One-take" Woody Van Dyke who made some of the best movies of the decade (including THE THIN MAN which in my opinion is nothing like as good as this.) Why people criticise this for being too fast and too loud and then praise to the heavens the inferior but louder and faster TWENTIETH CENTURY makes no sense.
I guess comedy is personal. If you think DUCK SOUP is better than DAY AT THE RACES or think BOMBSHELL is rubbish and THE THIN MAN isn't half as funny as Jessie Matthew's in IT'S LOVE AGAIN then like me, you might find this brilliant!