George Raft is unexpectedly cheerful and animated in this surprisingly bright comedy directed by Alexander Hall. Raft could be hit or miss and this is comedy but he seems to be having a good time. It's not a bad idea for a movie -Raft is running a casino and goes into partnership with socialite Dolores Costello, who owns a mansion but has no money. His cronies worries he's going soft and will be hurt by Costello so they hire conwoman Ida Lupino to pretend to be a lady of society to seduce and dump raft.
Costello - Mrs John Barrymore for a time - is very pretty and sweet but Lupino steals the show, having enormous fun as a conwoman. She was very young when she made this but Lupino always seems older than her years so this doesn't have the ick factor.
The film could have used some villains in the third act and isn't exactly hilarious - more unexpectedly entertaining. I'm surprised Paramount never remade this with Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra or someone.
No comments:
Post a Comment