A Bit Of A Dip
In between her stunning hits with Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard found time to get loaned out to Universal from Paramount for My Man Godfrey and Love Before Breakfast. The first of course is a comedy classic with nice social overtones. The second is an all right comedy, but not up to the standards she set with Fred MacMurray at Paramount.It's the usual romantic triangle with Carole caught between Cesar Romero who has her and Preston Foster who wants her. Both of them are in the oil business and Foster has just bought out Cesar's company and now he works for Foster. To clear the field he sends Cesar off to Japan to their new branch office, but Carole thinks that's not playing fair. So Preston's going to have to put on a big campaign to win her.
Of course that's helped along when Carole sees a photograph of Romero in Tokyo looking like he's living it up. But the rather arrogant Foster overplays his hand a bit. It's a close race right up to the finish to see who will get Carole, but I think it's rather obvious.
Some criticism was made of Foster and while he didn't exactly do much in the way of comedy, I think he handled it well in this film. Romero was his charming best and two performances in the cast also deserve to be singled out. One is Janet Beecher as Lombard's wise mother and the other is Joyce Compton as an empty headed southern belle who Lombard almost foists on Foster.
Love Before Breakfast is a bit of a dip in the career of Carole Lombard, but not anything her fans would notice, either back in 1936 or now.
score 6/10
bkoganbing 9 March 2011
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2396514/35637
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