Stepping Out

Accidentally started watching this film and I couldn't walk away. Humor still holds up, and so refreshing to see an adult themed film without pandering to the 14 and under crowd-unheard of these days unfortunately. The movie was made almost 90 years ago and I'm watching it for first time in 2019!

The main problem here is the plot. It has some good ideas, but even at a short running time of 73 minutes I found myself looking at my watch. This might have been a great two-reel comedy, but there simply is not enough plot to stretch over the allotted time.

The plot revolves around two couples - Tom and Eve (Reginald Denny and Leila Hyams) and Sally and Tubby (Charlotte Greenwood and Harry Stubbs). Both couples are well-off financially, and Tom and Tubby are currently producing a motion picture together. The wives, feeling somewhat displaced by their husbands busy work schedule, decide to go to Agua Caliente, a race track and resort in Tijuana that was a fashionable destination at the time. They hope to have fun for a few days and get their husbands to start missing them as well.

The problems begin when Tubby decides to invite two pretty young ladies over to Tom's house - where they are supposed to be working - based on the fact that the two girls claim to find Tubby wildly attractive. One look in the mirror should have convinced Tubby that these two girls couldn't be completely on the level. Then unexpectedly the wives return home because one of them forgot her luggage. Add to that the fact that Tom and Tubby's lawyer had them both put their money in their wives' names in case the picture bombed and lost money - and the girls find the papers that give them title - and you have all the elements of a marital farce with the fellows having big stakes in getting their wives to forgive them.

I'd recommend this one, because there are some genuinely funny moments and gags throughout, just realize this is not the sauciest or the snappiest little precode out there.

Of all the fine performers in this extended and leaden attempt at mixing slapstick with drawing room style wit, Charlotte Greenwood shines most consistently, though even she must fight the material at almost every turn. In the 75 minutes of running time there are perhaps 3 or 4 really funny, clever exchanges. Two examples: "Have you no conscience?" – "Sure, but I ignore it!" Or: (to paraphrase), Greenwood: "You're not very big." Cliff Edwards: "Let's go into the other room together and I might surprise you." Adapted from a hit Broadway comedy, the slender plot involves neglected Hollywood wives (Greenwood and Leila Hyams) who, after catching their wealthy husbands (Harry Stubbs and Reginald Denny) in the company of two voracious gold diggers (Lillian Bond and Merna Kennedy), run off together to a Mexican resort only to find themselves chased by a pair of male gold diggers (Cliff Edwards and Kane Richmond). The husbands pursue the wives, the female gold diggers pursue the husbands and they all get mixed up together in Caliente where they indulge in endless belabored farcical encounters. If one is a Greenwood fan, and she surely is something interesting to behold when compared to most of the Hollywood females of her time, this film is worth a look. Otherwise there is very little to recommend.

Leila Hyams and Charlotte Greenwood decide to take a few days at Agua Caliente to get a break from husbands Reginald Denny and Harry Stubbs, and to make them miss their wives. The men immediately invite a couple of girls over to discuss the independent movie they're financing and to swim -- no bathing suits. The wives walk back in, then walk out again to meet up with Cliff Edwards and Richard Tucker, only to have the husbands show up.

It's a pre-code situation comedy that is pretty much French Farce without slamming doors. There's some solid camerawork by Leonard Smith, William Gray edits at a brisk pace, and there are some well-delivered lines, particularly by Miss Greenwood. The result is a very glossy comedy that is amusing or better throughout.

Here's a sprightly romantic comedy from MGM featuring elastic funny lady Charlotte Greenwood and pretty Leila Hyams. She gets top-billing playing one of two disgruntled Hollywood wives seeking revenge on their movie-producer husbands. Seems that the straying spouses, played by portly Harry Stubbs and dashing Reginald Denny respectively, have canceled their plans for an evening out with their wives. Under pressure from Stubbs, the reluctant Denny agrees to cavort with two beautiful starlets who hope to appear in their next picture.

So as payback, the disappointed but defiant wives decide to head to Mexico for some fun and games of chance. But they soon return home for a forgotten item, only to discover their husbands hosting a ribald pool party for the aspiring actresses. One of these starlets (Lillian Bond) goes by the rhyming stage name of "Cleo Del Rio," and the other has a penchant for piggy-back-riding. After being discovered, Denny's squirming and dissembling before his wife and this actress is amusing and nicely played by the actor with a usually unflappable persona.

Greenwood and Hyams continue on to Mexico anyway, with the added baggage of their husband's entire bank accounts, causing the desperate men to quickly follow. Complications ensue as the women flirt with a couple of flat-broke college guys (Cliff Edwards and handsome Kane Richmond) who are on the make, and suspect the women are wealthy. Comic mayhem ensues when the husbands surprise their wives as they entertain the other men for dinner in their Mexican bungalow.

There's lots of confusion and calamity as the two couples come to grips with the situation, and some expert physical comedy is on display by Greenwood and Edwards, who plays perhaps one of the most mature and balding college guys ever. There's even a nice little duet, with Edwards accompanying Greenwood on -what else -- the ukulele. And of course, it's de rigueur that Charlotte Greenwood display her signature brand of crazy-legged comedy schtick that still seems amazing and remarkable today.

"Stepping Out" contains a few funny and risqué lines of dialog, a likable cast, and some amusing situations, but fails to rise to the level of the great comedy produced by, say, The Marx Brothers or Burns and Allen. Experienced vaudevillian Charlotte Greenwood makes an unique screen presence, and she pulls out all the stops to make this somewhat slight material work. She's gangly and homely, yet with a sophisticated and fashionable exterior that creates a strikingly comic dichotomy.

Charmingly innocent by today's standards, "Stepping Out" at least offers the opportunity to experience veteran entertainers like Charlotte Greenwood and Cliff Edwards performing routines that made them famous.

** out of *****