Carole Lombard Joins Movie Night

We've decided to begin a mini-Carole Lombard festival for movie night (mini in the sense that we've done a bunch of her movies in the past, and won't repeat most of them) We started with We're Not Dressing.  This is a very silly movie.  Carole plays an heiress, pursued by two men (one of who is a very young and callow Ray Milland!!), but she instead falls in unwilling love with a hand aboard her yacht.  His claim to fame? He can sing to her pet gorilla.  He, of course, is Bing Crosby, so we get treated to a number of songs by the maestro of 1930s pop. 

We wondered if Lina Wertmuller (Swept Away) had seen this movie, because it is the same plot, only done for humor.  And we have additional humor in the form of the delicious Gracie Allen.  We talked a lot about Gracie.  As always, she is so funny - living in her own world, and bemused that others don't get it.  This movie, however, shows the earlier incarnation of George Burns, as an exasperated and annoyed onlooker to Gracie's viewpoint.  We much prefer him in the 50s, when his response to her nonsense was always "I love her, that's why". 

We were also amused by the "special effects", obvious cuts between a real gorilla and a man in a costume.  Really, they did do a decent job in the transition.  (Why we needed the dumb gorilla, we never quite figured out.  It really was silly beyond belief). 

Is this a great movie? NO. Is it funny - yes, it is.  Thanks to Gracie Allen, and some lovely work by the ever luminous Ms. Lombard, it is funny.  Certainly worth a look (and if you like to listen to Bing Crosby singing, again - worth your time.)  And here is Crosby singing to Lombard in the trailer: