... because I recognize his trademark wit in some of the one liners. I can also see how some material may have gotten lost in translation while adapting it to the screen.
Paul Vanderkill (John Boles) manages his family's extensive New York City real estate holdings. His aunt Sophie drops by one day and is horrified that the Loveland Dance Hall is renting out some of their real estate. Paul says he will investigate and ensure that the place is decent. You can tell this really doesn't trouble him, he just wants Aunt Sophie humored and out of the way. It turns out it is one of those "ten cents a dance" places that were common during the Great Depression.
When Paul arrives at the dance hall, he first encounters Madelaine (Nancy Carroll). He wants to ask some questions about the place. Why he doesn't go straight to the manager is unclear, except that maybe he wants a straightforward explanation and figures he's more likely to get one from one of the girls who works there, plus we'd have no story if he simply talked to management. Madelaine gets the idea that the Paul is poor. He doesn't correct her impression, and he is surprised by her generosity to someone to whom she doesn't believe has much. He buys enough dance tickets to cover the entire evening and leaves with her. At this point she begins to realize he is not poor.
It's fun watching them have difficulties with each other's speech patterns. Paul has the remains of his Dutch ancestors' accent. Madelaine has a working class New York vocabulary.
"Did you call me a witch? For a minute I thought you said something else!" And so on.
The two get to know each other and fall in love. But Paul doesn't want to get married because - reasons. It really isn't clear. He keeps talking about having "a daughter with modern ideas" and that he doesn't want any scandal to touch her. How marrying Madeleine is scandalous is either some lame excuse not to get permanently entangled or it is really insulting because deep down he considers her beneath him and THAT would be a scandal in his estimation. It is never explained. Nor do we ever get a glimpse of this modern daughter of his.
So what happens when two people live together in 1933 when there is no birth control? I imagine you can figure out what happens. How both people handle the situation - watch and find out.
Preston Sturges was never one to humor illusions about noble poverty. Madelaine's family is what you'd expect of a group of people who are weighed down by a lifetime of poverty and the more severe and recent Depression. Mom is coarse, untrusting, and definitely not nurturing. Dad is probably dead but unmentioned - maybe he ran off. Her brother is a layabout and a moocher. Her younger sister has just one scene where she cries.
And there are characters who wander in and out of the film. I've mentioned Madelaine's family - they disappear during the second half never to be seen again. Instead, up pops Maddy's Aunt Minnie (Jessie Ralph) who is everything Maddie's mother is not - supportive, nurturing, and generous. Wherever did she come from? It is never explained.
It would be nice to have more information on the source material, because there are holes in the plot and in the cast that might be explained in Preston Sturges' play. I'd recommend this because John Boles is a much better actor than his early talkie song bird reputation would have you believe, and Nancy Carroll always grabs my attention. Her career would have gone on much longer had she not been so hard to get along with on the set. She did, though, have a very successful stage career and then made numerous guest appearances on TV as well.
