Fine Manners

A good Gloria Swanson comedy programmer, this lacks the verve that her work with Alan Dwan showed (MANHANDLED is a classic). The story, about how rich Eugene O'Brien falls in love with poor Gloria, but her aunt insists that she be trained as a lady while Eugene is off for six months in South America, is decently handled. But there are clear cheats in this as a double does cartwheels for Gloria: if Dwan had been directing, Gloria would have insisted on doing the cartwheels herself.

Director Rossen does a fine job on the visuals with the help of cinematographer George Webber, who seems not to have adjusted to the constraints of shooting with sound a few years later. Their pans of faces a couple of times are telling, human and very funny.

But the most interesting thing about this film is the way Swanson is made up. I had to blink a couple of times when I realized that she had the same look Joan Crawford would sport during her 1930s 'Shopgirl' phase.