Director: Preston Sturgess
Writers: Preston Sturgess,
Monkton Hoffe (story)
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck,
Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest, Eric Blore,
Melville Cooper
You just have to love the
preposterousness of the set ups they used to come up with for old romantic
screwball comedies. So Henry Fonda is this heir to a very popular brewing
company. Barbara Stanwyck is a con artist who wants to grift him but ends up
falling in love with him. I guess the writers really wanted to start their
story out on a cruise ship, so instead of having some metropolitan Meet Cute,
they make Fonda an explorer as well. He’s been finding exotic snakes in South
America I guess, but must get back to the States and stops a cruise ship to
sail him home. He’s super rich, so it could happen. Wow. That’s a lot of work
to go through just to set up your romantic comedy. But hey, it’s a whole lot
more interesting than just knocking her newly nicked clothes all over the
pavement on 5th Avenue.
When I was very young, like
maybe seven, I think I had a crush on Barbara Stanwyck. Certainly an
understandable state for a man, whatever the age, or sexuality for that
matter. My problem was that the
only thing I actually knew her from was television’s “Big Valley”. She was my
grandmother’s age (actually older). I knew a crush wasn’t right. But she was
such a beautiful and powerful woman; it was impossible to deny either her
beauty or her strength. To see her go a little gaga over Fonda as a bit of a
doofus here is kind of a different light in which to see her. I like it,
though. It humanizes her.
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