I've got the sneaking suspicion Paramount made this to cash in on Forever Amber in the same way Warner Bros made Jezebel to cash in on Gone with the Wind. (The novel was bought for filming prior to Amber's publication though it must be said.)
Paulette Goddard isn't the first star you think of to be in a costume film but she's very well cast here as a pretty fortune hunter. Well she doesn't start off that way - she's just a starving guttersnipe whose looks get her some modelling work and a job in a rich man's house. Ray Milland then decides to turn her into a lady to further his own career.
So it's a rip off of Pygmalion crossed with Gainsborough movies that were popular in England... but the touch of this is lighter.
Goddard is super fun - cheerful, lively. She makes this fun. I really like her as an actor. I enjoyed how Milland's motive was selfish - to get back in the foreign office. Greed helps a piece age well. Goddard goes on and marries two guys - she sleeps with them.
It's not a perfect film. Milland is very uninterested in Goddard for the most part, which the story requires, but is hard to believe because Goddard is so vivacious. I think they should have had a female rival for him - a lady whose love he was seeking, a real bitch. It would have made Milland seem more straight.
Support cast don't get much of a chance to shine which is a shame. Cecil Kellaway is fun as Gainsborough but we don't see him again after the beginning. Patrick Knowles is stiff as always as someone who loves Kitty. There are various old actors playing wigs. You get the impression that Mitchell Leisen at times is more interested in the decor than the storyline but Goddard makes it worthwhile.
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