Strangers in Love 1932
WatchedAug14,2023
Karina Oliveira’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Well, it seems to me a twin outta go for twice as much what an ordinary brother’d go for."
2️⃣ Fredric Marchs (one asshole archeologist with a bum ticker and one down-and-out ex-Lafayette Escadrille pilot who takes the former’s place after his twin conveniently croaks) + 1️⃣ Kay Francis (a secretary-with-a-socialite’s-wardrobe who thinks that twin #1 swindled her dad but softens when twin #2 covertly slips into the picture) should = 💯, but somehow the numbers here just don't add up. Though - full disclosure - math has never been my strong suit.
One of those convoluted, coincidence-filled plots that'll collapse if you so much as look at it the wrong way, kept afloat solely by the charm of the leads (and obviously the two Freddies gimmick; no, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde doesn’t technically count). It's fairly clear why Warner Bros. was able to lure Francis away from Paramount (this was her last film before making the big switch, though she'd soon be loaned back for Trouble in Paradise; actors really were trading cards back in the day). I'm not as enamored of Man Wanted - her first vehicle for her new studio - as some, but her role in that film was a marked improvement over most of the parts she'd been receiving up to that point. Sure it all eventually went the way of Box Office Poison, but it was great while it lasted.
How much do you wanna bet this one was simply pitched as, "Yada, yada, yada - Kay gets turned on while being pursued by the cops at high speed in a boat. And is soaked* in the process."
"You know, you’re unusually human this morning."
*In an evening gown, natch. What can I say? She made it look good.
Available here.
Postscript - Supporting players include Stuart Erwin as the nice March’s flyer buddy with fantastic dreams of bread and butter (" . . . that yellow stuff in them squares there."), Juliette Compton as our requisite bad girl (you can tell because she lounges about and eats bonbons), George Barbier as Kay’s pa (one of 12 films he appeared in that year; he was to Paramount what Guy Kibbee was to Warner Bros.), pre-Charlie Chan Sidney Toler as a detective who really needs to pay more mind to his chapeau, and Gertrude Howard playing a mammy even though the film is set in New York City. 🤦♀️
Post-postscript - Apparently, Kay got mixed up with doppelgängers again in 1941’s The Man Who Lost Himself, this time two Brian Ahernes. An investigation on my part may be required. 🧐
- pre-code 2023
Karina liked these reviews
- Reviewed by Gentry ★★★
- Reviewed by Cate ★★½
- Reviewed by ⛄️scary grant⛄️ ★★★★½
- Reviewed by OxfordComma ★★½
- Reviewed by Michael Shawn ★★★½
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