Cross-Country Romance

"Love on a Bet" was a cute movie about Gene Raymond and Wendy Barrie falling in love during a cross-country chase. The public must have liked it too, because the studio decided to make it again--the same theme and the same leads. But they didn't bother this time to get an amusing script. How's this for a variation--at the beginning of "Love on a Bet," Gene Raymond has to appear in public in his underwear; at the beginning of this movie, Wendy Barrie does. And how's this for exposition--Barrie tells Raymond when they meet, "I'm an heiress. I have loads of money. I'm running away from a marriage that my mother arranged for me." Yes, there's a bit of "It Happened One Night" thrown in too.

Not only is the script uninspired and lame, the direction limps as well, holding a shot too long or starting one too early. Hedda Hopper is unpleasant and boring as Barrie's mother, and Barrie and Raymond have no chemistry--there is no justification, in the script or their acting, for either one to suddenly fall in love with the other.

This movie should have been titled "Let Well Enough Alone."