There's lots to like in this film version of the hit Broadway comedy that was a star vehicle for Gertrude lawrence, but on screen, it's so much like many other screwball comedies involving marital issues between sophisticated people. Claudette Colbert is glamorous as always, and she doesn't exactly get what she expects on her fifth wedding anniversary to Ray Milland so she runs out for a quick adventure with attorney Brian Aherne which leaves Milland alone trying to save an advertising account for wealthy Grant Mitchell.
A scene between Colbert and Mitchell's much younger wife (Binnie Barnes) is loaded with venom and results in Milland leaving her after he loses the account. But when he comes back, he finds Colbert and Aherne involved and tries to win her back, resulting in all the typical complications that come in these plays and films that show what happens when a wife tries to help her husband advance in his career. The sequence with Colbert trying to get dinner together on Aherne's boat during a storm is very funny although I can't imagine it having been easy to do on stage.
It's obvious from the moment that Milland and Colbert separate what's going to transpire in the second half of the film. The first half has a few amusing sequences, showing Colbert interfering in assistant, Walter Abel, arranging for her anniversary present in a jewelry store and changing the transaction as soon as Abel is gone. Mona Barrie steals every moment she's on as Colbert's confidante. This is glamorous and easygoing although at times the lead characters can be a bit obnoxious. It probably worked a lot better on stage where the characters could be fleshed out, but in typical Hollywood fashion, it ends up being defused when put on celluloid. There's a reason why some starry movies end up being forgotten, and this is an example of why they don't always reach out to the stars and grab them by the Comet.
A scene between Colbert and Mitchell's much younger wife (Binnie Barnes) is loaded with venom and results in Milland leaving her after he loses the account. But when he comes back, he finds Colbert and Aherne involved and tries to win her back, resulting in all the typical complications that come in these plays and films that show what happens when a wife tries to help her husband advance in his career. The sequence with Colbert trying to get dinner together on Aherne's boat during a storm is very funny although I can't imagine it having been easy to do on stage.
It's obvious from the moment that Milland and Colbert separate what's going to transpire in the second half of the film. The first half has a few amusing sequences, showing Colbert interfering in assistant, Walter Abel, arranging for her anniversary present in a jewelry store and changing the transaction as soon as Abel is gone. Mona Barrie steals every moment she's on as Colbert's confidante. This is glamorous and easygoing although at times the lead characters can be a bit obnoxious. It probably worked a lot better on stage where the characters could be fleshed out, but in typical Hollywood fashion, it ends up being defused when put on celluloid. There's a reason why some starry movies end up being forgotten, and this is an example of why they don't always reach out to the stars and grab them by the Comet.