Directed by Marion Gering
1934/USA
B.P. Schulberg Productions for Paramount Pictures
First viewing
[box] King Anatol: It’s extraordinary how much you look like Zizi! Tell me, have you any royal blood in your veins?
Nancy Lane: I don’t think so, Your Majesty.
King Anatol: Well, my dear, one can never tell.[/box]
A banker (Edward Arnold) wants to float a bond issue for the kingdom of Tyronia and brings its princess (Sylvia Sydney) to New York to publicize the deal. During her first speech there, the princess collapses and must be quarantined for mumps. The banker finds a lookalike stand-in in the form of Nancy Allen (also Sylvia Sydney), a struggling actress. He promises her extra payment if she can vamp crusading newspaper editor Porter Madison III (Cary Grant) into not denouncing the bond issue. Naturally, Porter soon falls in love with the “princess” and the feeling is mutual.
This is standard romantic comedy fare. The story is lifted slightly above average by the performances of the two leads and a script that was co-written by Preston Sturges.
Clip – at the automat (the two men are scouting for a princess stand-in)
Never heard of this one, but I am intrigued by the combination of Cary Grant (who makes ANYTHING infinitely more watchable) and Preston Sturges. Hmmm….
Dammit I love Cary Grant.
This was an OK movie but maybe less than the sum of its parts might make it appear. I like Sylvia Sydney a lot too and she made too few movies in my opinion. She has pretty good chemistry with the always wonderful Grant.
I always liked Sylvia Sydney but thought, like Mary Astor, she looked older than her years. That’s not a bad thing……it just seemed that she was always in her mid-30s when I know she was younger.
My favorite Sylvia Sydney films are Hitchcock’s Sabotage and Lang’s Fury. She’s fine here but drama is more her forte.
I was going to say that Sabotage was my favorite Sydney film but you beat me to it. Though I always wondered how she could be married to Oscar Homolka in the film. Hitchcock caught a lot of flack for the killing of the little brother in the bus explosion since people were not used to seeing innocent children killed, especially one as whimsical as the child was.
I think her character married Homolka mainly to have a provider for her and especially the brother. I loved her acting in reaction to the brother’s death. I believe Hitchcock acknowledged that bumping the brother off was a big mistake.