Herbert Marshall is a successful Broadway playwright, with 19 hits under his belt. Now he's working on a tragedy about a middle-aged man who falls in love with a young girl, but is aced out by a younger man. It's not turning out right, so he decides to run off to Finland with Astrid Allwyn. He changes his mind when his secretary, Sylvia Sidney, admits that she loves him. A year later, the play concludes its triumphant Broadway run with Miss Sidney as the girl, and is about to go on tour. It's then that Phillip Reed, who plays the young lover in the play, asks for Marshall's help in wooing Miss Sidney.
Samson Raphaelson's play had been successful on Broadway -- less so in London, where Greer Garson had the ingenue role -- but this sophisticated comedy lacks something in the filmed version. Perhaps it's the fact that two-thirds of the movie is spent setting up the situation, with an awful lot of dialogue and little business or visual variations in a one-set venue. The final third picks up a bit, with most of the comedy honors going to Ernest Cossart as Marshall's butler; his unflustered correctness combines well with Marshall's informality. But it ends up pretty close to where it began, with little to show in the interval. With early roles for Dick Foran and Lon Chaney Jr.
It was successful enough that it was remade twice.
Samson Raphaelson's play had been successful on Broadway -- less so in London, where Greer Garson had the ingenue role -- but this sophisticated comedy lacks something in the filmed version. Perhaps it's the fact that two-thirds of the movie is spent setting up the situation, with an awful lot of dialogue and little business or visual variations in a one-set venue. The final third picks up a bit, with most of the comedy honors going to Ernest Cossart as Marshall's butler; his unflustered correctness combines well with Marshall's informality. But it ends up pretty close to where it began, with little to show in the interval. With early roles for Dick Foran and Lon Chaney Jr.
It was successful enough that it was remade twice.