She Couldn't Take It

Because this a blend of the gangster and screwball comedy genres George Raft's gangster persona fit s well in She Couldn't Take It. Raft is an imprisoned bootlegger who plans to go straight when he's out.

While in the joint he meets Walter Connolly, tycoon doing a stretch for some white collar crime who has a ditzy family consisting of Billie Burke and children Joan Bennett and James Blakeley. While Connolly does his stretch the wife and kids are making headlines with one madcap bit of lunacy after another.

What Connolly does as he is dying in prison is make Raft the trustee of his estate and kee[er of the purse strings. The family has to learn to live with it.

Some of his old gangster pals seeing a chance to collect try a kidnapping of Joan Bennett. I thin you see where this is going.

Besides Raft the rest of the film is cast nicely. Standing out among the rest are Lloyd Nolan as the creator of the kidnap scheme and Wallace Ford as Raft's luckless sidekick.

Although Joan Bennett is fine in her part as the spoiled heiress, the role really cries for Carole Lombard. Still She Couldn't Take it is a nice example of blended genre.