The Romantic Comedy Blogathon: Hands Across The Table (1935)

One of my favorite screwball comedies, Hands Across The Table pairs my girl Carole Lombard with Fred MacMurray and the results are hilarious. Carole plays manicurist Regi Allen, who works at a swank hotel, and is determined to land a millionaire.One of her regular clients is Allen Macklyn, a rich man who was paralyzed in a plane crash. He's played by Ralph Bellamy. They get along great. Fred MacMurray enters the picture as poor playboy Theodore Drew, III, and the two are instantly attracted to each other. Wrongly believing Theodore to be wealthy, Regi invites him to live in her apartment -- until she discovers he's broke. Theodore wants to marry rich too, and so he gets engaged to an heiress he doesn't love. In classic screwball fashion, Regi and Theodore desperately try to ignore their growing passion for one another in favor of the promise of money -- and fail miserably. Carole and Fred make a great team and Hands Across the Table is a great looking and funny film. It does get a little serious towards the end, but never gets too serious. Carole is on the mark as usual and looks fabulous. Fred is pretty good as well. Great support by Bellamy and Ruth Donnelly as Regi's boss. One of the best screwball comedies ever. And one of my favorites that Carole made. As she is definitely in her element here in this fun movie. With expert direction by the great Mitchell Leisen, this is one of the genre's best!

 I could have also written about Carole's next pairing with Fred in the just as wonderful, True Confession in 1937. Maybe I can do that for the next romantic comedy blogathon. Wait, there will be another romantic comedy blogathon, I hope. Here are some more photos from Hands Across The Table. 






Thanks to Lara Gabrielle over at  backlots and Vince over at  carole-and-co for hosting this wonderful blogathon. My entry was just one of many so please check out all the other bloggers who made some terrific entries as well.

Hitchcock Halloween Blogathon: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

For my contribution to the Backlots Hitchcock Halloween Blogathon I chose the only comedy Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, did, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring my all time favorite actress Carole Lombard. This is my favorite film of hers by the way. Screwball comedies are my favorite type of films and this one fits quite nicely into that category. Well a bit. While not a full blown screwball comedy, it is quite fun and often hilarious nonetheless. And it does feature a little suspense every now and then. Well not really but you can still enjoy this film as a departure from what Hitchcock normally does.

David looking worried at the film's beginning

The film is set in bustling New York and begins with a married couple of three years named David and Ann Smith (great pairing of Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard) who tend to bicker and have these huge arguments from time to time when they are not speaking to one another. Such is the case at the film's beginning as the pair have been sequestered in their lavish apartment home while their staff shuttles them food and drink. This latest misunderstanding has been going on for three days and David's office, a law firm where his pal Jeff (a solid Gene Raymond) keeps calling to see has a truce been made. As Jeff sends over some critical papers for David to sign, the pair finally makes up and end up having breakfast together.

Ann and David make up after this three day session

But Ann asks a question which prompts an answer from David that doesn't exactly make her happy. She asks David if he had it to do it all over again would he. And he puts in honestly and bluntly, no he would not. He would not marry her and would remain single. Remember this key moment as it will become the focal point for the rest of the film.

But not for long because over breakfast Ann asks that pivotal question

While at work, David receives a guest in the form of Mr. Deever (Charles Halton) from Ann's hometown of Idaho comes a calling saying that the Smith's, along with several other hundreds of couples are not technically married, through some municipal and state jurisdictional matter at the time. David takes the news quite nicely but when Mr. Deever stops by their home to share the same news with Ann and Ann's mother, it doesn't have the same effect.

At dinner David tries to get the cat to have some soup...

David calls up and tells Ann they are going to the restaurant where he proposed to her and Ann believes it's where he will pop the question again. But alas things don't go that way and Ann begins to squirm as the night draws to a close. Meanwhile David is having the time of his life. Back home for a little champagne Ann finally snaps and throws a tantrum asking if and when David was going to ever marry her again. David tries to explain that he was just waiting for the right moment and before you know he is spending the night at The Beefeater's Club, a luxurious hotel where men go who are having domestic troubles. It's there he meets the seen it all Chuck (played by the always wonderful Jack Carson), who is a frequent regular at the hotel.

Mr. Deever drops by to share some news...

David tries to woo back Ann over the course of the rest of the film but Ann is steadfast in holding her ground. Saying she doesn't want to remarry David and instead finds a job and actually starts dating Jeff, much to David's chagrin. In fact the date Ann and Jeff goes on leads to a hilarious seen after Jeff catches cold and Ann tries to nurse him back to health with some liquor. At first Jeff is good to go but then it hits him like a ton of bricks and Gene Raymond gives a masterful drunken little scene. 

The gorgeous Carole

For the first hour, this film is golden. It does start to sag during the final half hour just a bit as Ann and Jeff take a getaway vacation to Lake Placid, in which David follows. But it rebounds right back during the closing scenes to make this a wonderful film. Like I said it is my favorite of Carole, and that's saying something, considering her resume which includes To Be Or Not To Be, Twentieth Century and My Man Godfrey. It's just something about this premise of a couple who truly love each other despite all their fighting and bickering. It's classic Hollywood star power in Carole and Robert with solid supporting turns by a great cast. If you have never seen it, you have to check it out at least once. And it's great seeing Hitchcock do an all out comedy as most of his films always some humor and comedy in them. So you knew he was capable of doing a film like this. And he did it awesomely!

Carole does a lot of finger pointing in this movie..haha

HIS GIRL FRIDAY wins the favorite screwball film tourney...which makes me very happy

Take a look Hildy...we won..no kidding!

The Favorite Screwball Film tourney came to an end yesterday and my favorite film of all time, His Girl Friday won it all. As a number two seed, Friday had to overcome a slew of top films including three number one seeds in It Happened One Night, My Man Godfrey and Bringing Up Baby. Now call me crazy but that is just impressive as all get out. Friday edged out Baby by the count of 16-13, so it was close but nevertheless a victory for the fastest talking comedy ever filmed. And my personal favorite to boot. So I am quite content today. I would like to thank all those that voted to make this tourney a huge success. By the way, the 2013 Favorite Classic Movie Actress Tourney gets underway March 3rd!

Cary Grant is tied with himself...

After three days, Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday are deadlocked at 10 votes apiece in the favorite screwball film tourney. At one point Friday was up by 3 votes and at one point Baby was ahead by 2. But now things are dead even. Looks like this match will go down to the wire. Voting ends on Sunday evening.

Cary looks exhausted...but it's almost over

It will be Cary Grant vs. Cary Grant for favorite Screwball film

The two semi-final matches were very close but in the end, two Cary Grant films edged out two William Powell films to set up an all Cary Grant final match in the favorite screwball film tourney. Overall top seed Bringing Up Baby beat The Thin Man 13-10 while 2nd seed His Girl Friday slid by the other top seed My Man Godfrey 12-9. It is great news for me as Friday and Baby are my number 1 and 2 favorite films of all time. So when the final match begins and whoever wins, I will be good with either outcome. But I will be pulling for Friday just slightly. The match begins right now and will run through Sunday evening. Then I can declare the winner of All Good Things Favorite Screwball Film.

FINAL MATCH

1 BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

VS

2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)

Round Four features a pair of dream semi-final matches

The Favorite Screwball Film tourney heads into round four with a pair of dream semi-final matches. Both matches pits a number one seed against a number two seed. In the first match, overall top seed Bringing Up Baby squares off against second seed The Thin Man. The second match will feature number one seed My Man Godrey against second seed His Girl Friday. So we have a pair of Cary Grant films still in contention as well as one film with Carole Lombard. My top two favorite stars of all time. William Powell is also represented with two films himself. The matches begin this morning and run through Monday evening. Good luck to these four excellent films making it to the final four. And I would have no problem with any one of these films winning the tourney. But I am secretly pulling for His Girl Friday.

SEMI-FINAL MATCH 1

1 BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

VS

2 THE THIN MAN (1934)

---------------------------------------

SEMI-FINAL MATCH 2

1 MY MAN GODFREY (1936)

VS

2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)

Round Three concludes with Nick and Nora still in the mix....

Another number seed is shown the door as round three of the favorite screwball film tourney wraps up. It Happened One Night (a number one seed) falls to His Girl Friday, my fave film ever btw 21-17 in the Frank Capra bracket. The other two number 1 seeds won their matches. My Man Godfrey destroyed Ball of Fire 27-11. While overall tourney top seed Bringing Up Baby thrashed To Be or Not To Be by the same score. The last match had The Thin Man beating The Lady Eve 23-16. Which sets up two intriguing semi-final matches involving 1 and 2 seeds in both matches. My Man Godfrey will take on His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby takes on The Thin Man. These matches will begin tomorrow and run through Monday evening.

Congratulations guys on making it to the next round. I'm pulling for you to win the whole thing.

1 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 17
2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY 21

1 MY MAN GODFREY 27
7 BALL OF FIRE 11

1 BRINGING UP BABY 27
2 TO BE OR NOT TO BE 11

2 THE THIN MAN 23
4 THE LADY EVE 16

Round Three Update: Day 1

The four bracket final matches started yesterday and two of the remaining top three seeds are currently leading their respective matches after day one. Overall top seed Bringing Up Baby is crushing To Be Or Not To Be 14-5. My Man Godfrey leads Ball Of Fire 13-6. But the last remaining top seed It Happened One Night is losing to 2nd seed His Girl Friday 10-8. Not that I mind since Friday is my favorite film of all time. The other match has The Thin Man with a slight lead over The Lady Eve 12-8. Matches will continue on through Thursday evening. 

Babs better start working her magic or Ball of Fire

is about to make an exit from the tourney

1 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 8
2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY 10

1 MY MAN GODFREY 13
7 BALL OF FIRE 6

2 THE THIN MAN 12
4 THE LADY EVE 8

1 BRINGING UP BABY 14
2 TO BE OR NOT TO BE 5

Second round of Screwball Film Tourney results

A lot more closer matches this round as three of them were decided by 5 points or less. Two of the three top seeds rolled to easy victories, none more so than It Happened One Night Night. It hammered Merrily We Live 46-1. And Live just picked up that single vote on Thursday after 4 days of tourney play. Overall top seed Bringing Up Baby had little difficulty in defeating Midnight 33-13. But the last remaining top seed, My Man Godfrey had a devil of time with The Awful Truth before taking it down 27-21. And the one upset occurred when seventh seeded Ball of Fire beat third seed You Can't Take It With You 25-20. Here are the  complete scores on all eight matches. Round 3 will begin Sunday as the winners move on.

The Lady Eve moves on to round three

1 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 46
4 MERRILY WE LIVE 1

2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY 34
3 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY 17

1 MY MAN GODFREY 27
4 THE AWFUL TRUTH 21

3 YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU 20
7 BALL OF FIRE 25

2 THE THIN MAN 30
6 THE PALM BEACH STORY 15

4 THE LADY EVE 26
8 MY FAVORITE WIFE 20

1 BRINGING UP BABY 33
4 MIDNIGHT 13

2 TO BE OR NOT TO BE 32
3 THEODORA GOES WILD 11

Favorite Screwball Film Tourney: Day 4 Update

Three of the eight matches are so close that you couldn't shine a light between them. The other five matches are starting to separate the leaders from their competitors. My Man Godfrey leads The Awful Truth 23-19. The Lady Eve leads My Favorite Wife 21-19. And the closest match is going on between You Can't Take It With You and Ball Of Fire, with Fire currently holding a 1 point advantage of 20-19. The other matches are getting close to being over. Overall top seed Bringing up Baby is beating Midnight 30-10. The Thin Man is up 25-14 over The Palm Beach Story. To Be Or Not To Be is winning over Theodora Goes Wild 28-9. His Girl Friday has expanded a sizable lead over The Philadelphia Story 30-15. And It Happened One Night is crushing Merrily We Live 41-0. Yep, Live has still yet to earn a single vote. Matches continue on through Friday evening.

Yeah Duffy, get our bags packed..looks like me and Hildy are

going on to round 3!

1 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 41
4 MERRILY WE LIVE 0

2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY 30
3 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY 15

1 MY MAN GODFREY 23
4 THE AWFUL TRUTH 19

3 YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU 19
7 BALL OF FIRE 20

2 THE THIN MAN 25
6 THE PALM BEACH STORY 14

4 THE LADY EVE 21
8 MY FAVORITE WIFE 19

1 BRINGING UP BABY 30
4 MIDNIGHT 10

2 TO BE OR NOT TO BE 28
3 THEODORA GOES WILD 9

Second Round of Screwball Film Tourney: Day 2 Update

So now there are only three close matches after day 2. Yesterday there was five matches that had leads of fewer than 5 votes. All that changed today. The Thin Man has twice as many votes over The Palm Beach Story, leading now 20-10. Yesterday it led by only 3 votes. My Favorite Wife has a slender 3 point lead over The Lady Eve at 16-13. Yesterday they were dead-locked at 10 votes each. You Can't Take It With You is tied with Ball of Fire at 14 all. Yesterday Fire was down 11-9. And one of the top seeds, My Man Godfrey leads The Awful Truth 18-15. Yesterday  Godfrey was actually down 13-12. Now the other five matches are now looking like blow-outs. His Girl Friday has exploded over The Philadelphia Story to the tune of 23-11. Bringing Up Baby is up over Midnight 21-8. To Be Or Not To Be is crushing Theodora Goes Wild 20-7. And the biggest blow-out without question is taking place with It Happened One Night vs Merrily We Live. 31-0. Yep, Merrily We Live has yet to receive a single vote! Voting continues through Friday evening. 

Ball of Fire is in a slugfest with You Can't Take It With You...

1 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 31
4 MERRILY WE LIVE 0

2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY 23
3 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY 11

1 MY MAN GODFREY 18
4 THE AWFUL TRUTH 15

3 YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU 14
7 BALL OF FIRE 14

2 THE THIN MAN 20
6 THE PALM BEACH STORY 10

4 THE LADY EVE 13
8 MY FAVORITE WIFE 16

1 BRINGING UP BABY 21
4 MIDNIGHT 8

2 TO BE OR NOT TO BE 20
3 THEODORA GOES WILD 7

Second Round of Screwball Film Tourney: Day 1 Update

Five of the eight matches are very close, within 2-3 votes of each other. There are two matches that have a comfortable lead and one definite blow-out. The blow-out comes courtesy of a top seed in It Happened One Night, rolling over Merrily We Live 24-0. That's right...it's a shut-out so far. Live has yet to record a single vote on it's behalf. The two matches that are starting to slip away for the losing film feature top heavyweight films. Bringing Up Baby leads Midnight 15-7 while To Be Or Not To Be is up over Theodora Goes Wild 14-6. Now on to the five matches that are very close and are poised to go down to the wire. The Lady Eve and My Favorite Wife are dead-locked at 10 votes apiece. The Thin Man leads The Palm Beach Story 12-9. You Can't Take It With You leads Ball Of Fire 11-9. The third and final top seed, My Man Godfrey is actually down by a single vote to The Awful Truth 13-12. And my favorite film of all time, His Girl Friday is up on The Philadelphia Story 15-10. Like I said, some very close matches, and this is only day one. So expect some fierce competition before Friday comes. Should be fun and very interesting to see how this round plays out. Below are the updated scores:

Hold on there Nora, don't jinx our match..we haven't won yet!

1 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 24
4 MERRILY WE LIVE 0

2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY 15
3 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY 10

1 MY MAN GODFREY 12
4 THE AWFUL TRUTH 13

3 YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU 11
7 BALL OF FIRE 9

2 THE THIN MAN 12
6 THE PALM BEACH STORY 9

4 THE LADY EVE 10
8 MY FAVORITE WIFE 10

1 BRINGING UP BABY 15
4 MIDNIGHT 7

2 TO BE OR NOT TO BE 14
3 THEODORA GOES WILD 6

Favorite Screwball Film Tourney..Round 2 is underway

I had some time tonight to start round 2 of the favorite screwball film tourney instead of waiting until Sunday morning. So the matches are over on the right hand side and will be up through Friday evening. And all eight matches will take place here on this blog to make it even easier. The matches in this second round are gonna be very exciting.

As you can see even Carole is excited about this early start

for this second round

Second Round Matches of Favorite Screwball Film Tourney

Here are the next round of matches scheduled to begin on Sunday. Since there are only 8 matches left, I have decided to hold the rest of the tourney here on All Good Things to make it more convenient. As this blog gets way more traffic than Screwball Cinema. As we get into the meat of the tourney now, the matches become more evenly matched. And there are some great matches. For instance the match between His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story, which once again features Cary Grant squaring off against himself. Or the match between My Man Godfrey and The Awful Truth. That should be a fun one. And The Thin Man taking on The Palm Beach Story. This should be a very entertaining round for sure. The fun begins Sunday evening and will run through Friday evening. 

FRANK CAPRA BRACKET

1 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)

VS

4 MERRILY WE LIVE (1938)

--------------

2 HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)

VS

3 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)

------------------------------------------------

HOWARD HAWKS BRACKET

1 MY MAN GODFREY (1936)

VS

4 THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937)

--------------

3 YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938)

VS

7 BALL OF FIRE (1941)

------------------------------------------------

ERNST LUBITSCH BRACKET

2 THE THIN MAN (1934)

VS

6 THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942)

-------------

4 THE LADY EVE (1941)

VS

8 MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940)

-----------------------------------------------

PRESTON STURGES BRACKET

1 BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

VS

4 MIDNIGHT (1939)

---------------

2 TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)

VS

3 THEODORA GOES WILD (1936)

The first round of Favorite Screwball Film Tourney is in the books

The first round of The Favorite Screwball Film Tourney is in the books and with the exception of three upsets, most of the expected winners are moving on to round 2. The upsets included one of the four major top seeds..Trouble in Paradise losing to My Favorite Wife 23-15. Paradise made a gallant comeback as it was done early by the score of 13-2, but fell short. Another upset occurred when third seed Libeled Lady fell to sixth seed The Palm Beach Story by the count of 20-17. And a mild upset took place when 2nd seed Sullivan's Travels lost to 7th seed Ball Of Fire by the score of 22-20. The other matches were pretty much blow-outs except for Theodora Goes Wild and Topper engaging in a close 19-17 thriller. Here are the complete scores below:

Just hold on a minute baby and let me get ready for round 2

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 34
THE MORE THE MERRIER 8

MERRILY WE LIVE 22
THE GILDED LILY 7

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY 26
TWENTIETH CENTURY 16

HIS GIRL FRIDAY 37
THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR 8

MY MAN GODFREY 33
EASY LIVING 8

See it says it right there..The Awful Truth wins..so I actually 

beat myself if you can believe that

THE AWFUL TRUTH 25
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE 18

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU 24
BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE 12

BALL OF FIRE 22
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS 20

MY FAVORITE WIFE 23
TROUBLE IN PARADISE 15

THE LADY EVE 22
NINOTCHKA 16

THE PALM BEACH STORY 20
LIBELED LADY 17

THE THIN MAN 27
HOLIDAY 11

BRINGING UP BABY 34
BOMBSHELL 5

MIDNIGHT 27
THE GOOD FAIRY 8

TO BE OR NOT TO BE 30
THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES 6

THEODORA GOES WILD 19
TOPPER 17

Some stats:

Cary Grant started with the most films competing in this tourney with 8...he now has five left. Still the most by anyone else.

Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne and Barbara Stanwyck are perfect. Carole and Irene started with three films each and Barbara started with two. All of their films moved on to the next round.

Jean Arthur avoided a possible shut out as one of her films made it to round 2. Easy Living and The More The Merrier got sent packing but You Can't Take It With You won it's match.

Second round action with the remaining 16 films will begin Sunday evening. So everybody take a breather and come back then for round 2.

My love of classic films is beyond measure

Monty

More matches over at Screwball Cinema

Just a reminder that there are 8 matches going on over at my other blog, Screwball Cinema. Don't won't those matches to get left behind. Here's the link to take you straight there: screwballcinema.blogspot.com