Product: The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936)
Rating: 3.0
Knocked out
I image they probably knocked out this film in a fortnight, back when movie-goers went to the flicks twice a week and the studios had to keep the product pouring out. The curious thing is this cheap production is still making someone money nearly 80 years later. I bought it for Jean Arthur, an actress of great comic talents. She is fun to watch in this and, in some ways, this film provides an insight into the enormous box-office appeal she commanded in her day. There were plenty of screwball comediennes, but there is a mix of the sympathetic, the sceptical and the odd-ball in her style that is distinctive and appealing -- she is never just one of these things at any moment, but all three are in play. Interesting here, even though the story vehicle is pretty weak. Her co-star William Powell churned out a whole series of Thin Man films of this ilk with the wonderful Myrna Loy. I wonder whether this was meant to be another, but she wasn't available. I find Powell does not travel well these days -- his sort of deadpan, urbane humour was done better by others, starting with Cary Grant. There is probably enough here for Arthur fans to justify the purchase, but the film cannot hold a candle to More The Merrier or a dozen others for which she is famous.