False Pretenses

Irene Ware has lost her job and is broke. Sidney Blackmer has lost his fortune and is broke. They decide to raise enough money to take her to a rich man's watering spot and snag her a millionaire. However...

It's a surprisingly sprightly Poverty-Row comedy of manners, with a series of amusingly developed situations and a good cast, including Betty Compson, Edward Gargan and Dot Farley. Blackmer is pleasantly amusing in a rare comedy role; he winds up sounding like Charles Butterworth, instead of his more frequent turn as Teddy Roosevelt. Miss Compson winds up stealing the show as the lady who wants to marry him.

Director Charles Lamont, still working his way out of short subjects, had hit the ground running features the year before. This year, he directed nine features and a baker's dozen of shorts. When it came to comedy, he could handle anything from shtick to Abbott & Costello to stories like this: just another of the hordes of talented technicians ignored in favor of auteurs.