Surprisingly mean-spirited
A couple of commentators here (e.g. "Lady Jane Grey") got it right. The film starts out rather affectingly with poor working-girl Lombard meeting the wealthy wheelchair-bound Bellamy, who treats her with great tenderness and obviously adores her... but predictably (if only from Bellamy's well-known reputation for playing also-rans, and the prominence of Lombard and MacMurray's names above the title) she falls for the MacMurray character, a repellently shallow former playboy who's snotty and rude to everyone he runs into -- including, mystifyingly, Lombard herself. If you met this smug, smart-alecky creep in real life, believe me, folks, you would not find him charming; you would flee.MacMurray's snottiness is, if anything, made all the more unappealing because the movie has Lombard and other characters doubling over with laughter at his juvenile antics, as if he's the most hilarious fellow they've ever seen.
In addition to the obvious fact that the only generous, mature character in it gets shafted, the film has a particularly unfunny scene in which MacMurray and Lombard play a cruel telephone gag on MacMurray's fiancée (whom he's engaged to solely because of her money, and whom he will ultimately dump, despite her having magnanimously offered to forgive his unfaithfulness). After tricking the lady, MacMurray and Lombard once again fall to the floor with laughter at how they've put one over on her.
Must say I like Lombard a lot less after having seen this one.
score 3/10
210west 26 June 2011
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2449500/35636
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