The Goose and the Gander

Don't let the first ten minutes put you off. You might get the impression that it's going to be a stuffy drawing room comedy about people you're not going to like but you'd be wrong - it becomes an engaging and genuinely funny old fashioned farce.

The biggest revelation this picture gives you is that men's swimwear in the 30s was insanely ridiculous. The second revelation is that Kay Francis' dress could only exist in a world where gravity didn't exist - logically that shouldn't stay up! All that aside, this film after a slow start eventually turns into a charming silly comedy in the same vein as TOP HAT.

We've got a bunch of people stranded in a country house swapping bedrooms with the wrong partners, plots to break up a marriage, plots to save a marriage, plots to bring two people together, plots to steal diamonds and.... well it's not that important, just enjoy the trip.

OK, the first ten minutes doesn't shout out to you: this is going to be fun but stick with it because it really is. Kay Francis and George Brent were never going to win any Oscars but they are perfect in something light like this - they do make a great romantic couple. Likewise Genevieve Tobin, once you get used to the affected accent, also shows a real talent as for comedy whilst also adding a bit of class.

Overall it's put together perfectly. The script is tight, witty and fast, the acting natural and believable and the direction, although nothing spectacular is professional but most miraculously of all is that dress!

This is an interesting little Kay Francis programmer, co-starring her frequent leading man George Brent. It's a small and delicate Warners melodrama. It aroused my interest because of Francis.

I liked "Goose and the Gander" but it is not one of Francis' best roles. The plot is a bit baffling and sometimes hard to follow but it is fun and entertaining picture thanks to the charm of Francis & Brent.

This is one of three films Francis made with Brent in 1935. The others are "Living on Velvet" and "Stranded".

Delightful comedy in which Kay Francis is a divorcee who devises a cunning plot to get her ex husband back from his new wife (Genevive Tobin) whom she overhears planning a rendezvous with another man (George Brent). Things get very complicated and several people end up pretending to be someone else, including a couple of jewel thieves. With all the complications, imposters etc, this film reminds me a bit of a story by P.G. Wodehouse, his books were always rich with imposters, and he had more than one jewel thieving couple. He could have written this entertaining tale, it even has a formidable elderly aunt (Helen Lowell). Great fun.

This is the best of the Kay Francis vehicles, and I had never heard of it before a couple days ago.

Kay is stylish, George Brent actually looks handsome. And there is a real plot, not just cutesy and/or tear-jerking posturing.

Married couples, formerly married couples. And -- a couple who are jewel thieves.

It zings along and is great, amusing, romantic fun.

The best thing about this romantic comedy is how good it looks thanks to cinematographer Sidney Hickok. This 1935 but the interior scenes look like they were shot in the 1950's. Hickok was a brilliant cinematographer whose career began in the silents and he would go on to shoot such films as The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, To Have and Have Not, A slight Case of Murder, Gentleman Jim and the sci-fi classic Them. Charles Kenyon wrote the story and the screenplay about a woman who overhears the woman who stole away her husband planning a weekend affair with another man so she hatches an elaborate plan to embarrass the woman and her ex by diverting the cheating couple to her home and getting her ex to come over to catch them. Another couple who are jewel thieves are inadvertently lured into her trap and things start getting complicated. It's a good story and a good cast with Kay Francis, George Bret, Genevieve Tobin, John Eldredge, Claire Dodd, Ralph Forbes, William Austin and Helen Lowell. With the rampant infidelity theme this story was probably written with pre-code Hollywood in mind but with the code going into effect the year before it's release it was filmed as a little less salacious. Alfred E. Green who would make such films as The Jolson Story and The Jackie Robinson Story directs. it's a fun little film and I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.