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On a transatlantic ocean liner, a resourceful, sophisticated and alluring Barbara Stanwyck, in her first true comic role, along with her crooked but lovable father named the Colonel (Charles Coburn), takes advantage of an innocent, dense and slow-thinking, snake-loving man nicknamed 'Hopsie' (Henry Fonda) - the wealthy heir to a brewery fortune. In slapstick scenes throughout the film, he 'falls' for her - literally and figuratively - in three inspired pratfalls. The serious young millionaire is lured to her twice when the wily con artist masquerades as a shipboard cardsharp (and is discovered as an worldly adventuress when they reach New York) and then in another identity as an aristocratic, English noble lady - excusing herself as the identical twin of her black-sheep, discredited half-sister. On their wedding night train trip, she relates fanciful tales of numerous love affairs to cause her 'husband' to become thoroughly disillusioned and then depart. By film's end, however, she is tempted and falls for her own prey, resists her father's attempt to maneuver for a rich settlement, and is happily reunited with her man on another cruise ship. Because of his successful pairing with Stanwyck, Fonda went on to co-star with her in director Wesley Ruggles' lesser romantic comedy You Belong to Me (1941). [They had also worked together in The Mad Miss Manton (1938).]
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books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. film  film archive The best of cinema in the UK from 2002 to 2008. |
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