Count Nicki Prax (Melvyn Douglas) and Princess Victoria "Vicki" Wilkomirska (Norma Shearer) marry after falling in love at first sight during a party held to celebrate Vicki's engagement to another man, Hubert Tyler (Lee Bowman). They pretend to be poor (and not married) to get themselves the life they were used to leading, as rich aristocrats. However, their scheme is discovered when they're found sleeping in the same room (not in the same bed, it was the production code era).
When they actually fall poor, they take up lodgings with a whole bunch of rich friends, but will their marriage be as temporary as their wealth? There's another woman named Linda Wayne (Gail Patrick) who Nicki promised himself to before he met Vicki, and Hubert may want to get back together with Vicki. Nicki and Vicki (heh) soon divorce, but since this comedy is screwball in tone, you know it will end the same way that The Awful Truth and The Philadelphia Story ended.
I found that the film was well-paced at the beginning, lost steam in the middle and finished on a mediocre note, with a happy conclusion that seemed forced but in truth wasn't. The acting is pretty good.
Norma Shearer is her usual self (maybe a bit less mannered) as Princess Wilkomiska- she's clearly been made to look more 1940s, an ill attempt to transfer her image over to the new decade (this was her second-last film before retiring). She has a lightened, more 1940s hairstyle which makes her look both younger and older at the same time (shades of Billie Burke), and is placed in a lovely variety of pantsuits, suit-skirt combos and suit-looking dresses, many with tassels. Her character is supposed to be Polish, but Norma's about as Polish as maple syrup. She makes it work, launching into long threads of Polish (I think it's Polish, I don't speak the language so I wouldn't know) when she gets upset. Melvyn Douglas is also his usual self, charming, debonair, with that terrible mustache. He has very good chemistry with Norma, but I must admit, he had chemistry with all of his leading ladies. Even Greta Garbo.
The two leads also have reliable support from several notable character actors; the aforementioned Gail Patrick, Lee Bowman, Marjorie Main and Reginald Owen. They basically just do their usual as well. (Gail Patrick's eyebrows still freak me out. 😑) The film is nice to look at, with the usual M-G-M treatment of luscious production values and big sweeping Art Deco rooms. However, as I mentioned above, the plot isn't executed well, as the pacing is a bit off. It could have been shorter in some parts and longer in others. As well, exactly WHY Vicki and Nicki divorce is a bit unclear- you can't tell me that all Gail Patrick had to do was walk into the room.
It's not as bad as I expected it to be- much better than Her Cardboard Lover- but it doesn't rank among the best films of any actors involved. If you managed to slog your way through HCL, I'd watch this one- or if you just want to see Norma as a blonde. 🙂
Solid 6.5/10 from me, and no, I am not the only reviewer hung up on Norma's hair colour. 😁
