Early credit for the writing team of Brackett and Wilder had Ernst Lubitsch to direct plus Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert to star so got off to a strong start. I'm not a massive Cooper fan but he's not bad here, ideally-ish cast as a stiff American millionaire who falls for Colbert after they both try to buy pajamas (the most famous scene in the film). I know it's more a Rex Harrison part but I bought Cooper in the part - it helps that Cooper was still young and attractive here as opposed to the ageing near death figure he was in Love in the Afternoon. And there's plenty of awkward womanising American millionaires eg Howard Hughes.
I guess the plot does have Cooper harassing Colbert, though it plays a little better because she seems to be having fun. David Niven is terrific as a friend of Colbert's who is hired by Cooper to work as a secretary. Also good is Edward Everett Horton and Francis Pangborn. Coopre sings a song.
In fact it's done with such high spirits that it takes a while to sink in that the film doesn't have any story but once that happens the film becomes annoying and when Cooper goes all Petruchio on Colbert it's more than that because slapping and hitting is just not that funny. And then it becomes less funny and fun as it goes on with Cooper in the mental hospital and jokes about violence at the end. I'm sounding like a cranky old man aren't I? I just didn't find it funny. It got worse as it went on. The actors are fine. I mean, even Cooper commits. I just think there was no story.
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