The Devil to Pay!

Willie Leyland (Ronald Colman) returns to England to old girlfriend (Myrna Loy), but meets new girl (Loretta Young). The repartee between the characters is delightful. My favourite scene is when Ronald Colman is writing a letter to Myrna Loy to break off their relationship. He has gotten a dog upon his return to England, and he asks for the dog's comments while he's composing the letter.

The film is well done, and the charm of Ronald Colman and Loretta Young makes the story a "must see".

Ronald Colman plays a prodigal son. While he is NOT a bad guy, he is a bit flighty and hasn't done a lot with his life other than travel the world and have a jolly good time. Now that his latest venture in Africa has failed, he's on his way home to England. His rich upper class father plans on tossing him out on his ear, though thanks to Ronald's winning style, he is reluctantly welcomed back with open arms.

At this point, there are two women in his life--showgirl Myrna Loy and rich girl Loretta Young (who is already engaged). How will all this work out and will Ronald wise up and act like a responsible adult--these are the main themes of this pleasant little film.

This isn't a great movie and certainly won't change your life, but it certainly is very entertaining and fun. Most of this is due to the always genial acting of Ronald Colman. Heck, in the heyday of his career in the 1930s, he could have played in REEFER MADNESS or some other dreck and still made it entertaining and likable due to his charming persona. His seemingly effortless style in this movie make it very easy to like him and it's easy to see why both Loretta Young and Myrna Loy are in love with him in the film! Plus, the writing is very witty and make this a nice romantic-comedy.

This film directed by George Fitzmaurice, who made so many excellent films, is well up to his excellent standard. It is crisp, witty, with some wonderful lines, and has the inimitable Ronald Colman in the romantic lead. Colman plays the irresistibly charming younger son of a wealthy English peer. He is financially irresponsible (spending, for instance, £15 of his last £20 in the world on a cute little terrier whom he names George), but open, wildly generous, contemptuous of lucre, irreverent in the politest possible way, and hopelessly sentimental. He is so dashing that all the women fall in love with him. His girlfriend is a star of the music halls, and hence in 1930 a denizen of the demi-monde, played with her typical svelte, narrow-eyed silkiness by the youthful Myrna Loy. Fitzmaurice was not a great user of closeups, and gals of that day had their faces half-hidden with those awful clinging hats anyway, so we do not get as good glimpses of the faces of the two heroines as we would like. The director seems more interested in the charming Colman, anyway. The romantic female lead is the youthful and fresh-faced Loretta Young, who had not yet become the proto-Julie Andrews we generally know her as, but was still a blushing girl exuding all the sweetness of a rose garden and laughing merrily and heartily the whole time. It is obvious that a character with her terrific sense of humour was needed to appreciate the snob-busting social anarchism of the refreshing aristocratic character played by Colman. The plot barely matters, as is so often the case with these light and amusing films. This is just such fun.

It's all very predictable but written, acted and produced so exceptionally well that this nonsense becomes strangely enjoyable. What's astonishing is how well made and modern this is - it's hard to believe this was made in 1931.

Essentially this film is just an excuse for Ronald Colman just to do what Ronald Colman does: be charming, suave, witty and nonchalantly amusing. That basically it and you'll wonder if a whole picture can be nothing more than Ronald Colman doing Ronald Colman...surely he can't pull that off for a whole hour and a half - but he does!

In comparison with the dross which comprised the majority of what was being churned out in 1931, this is such a refreshing exception. Watching this, you can understand why Sam Goldwyn, all these years later, is still remembered as one of Hollywood's greatest producers. He made sure everything was perfect, he knew exactly how to entertain an audience, he knew how to make pictures. What's also refreshing is that this is a comedy about the super-rich, the English aristocracy in fact and yet the characters are normal, they're believable and kind of real. They're neither the bloated, pompous stuffed shirts or the cold, emotionless, evil and callous caricatures which they're normally portrayed as - they're just real people acting normally.

It's not just the star who shines in this. Besides the outrageously likeable Mr Colman, we've got a cute dog, we've got Myrna Loy being a blonde bombshell with an English accent, we've got loveable old grump Frederick Kerr (of Frankenstein and numerous Jessie Matthews comedies) not to mention Loretta Young. No, why would we not want to mention Loretta Young? She's remarkable in this - not only is she impossibly pretty (if this were made now, you'd think she had to be CGI generated because it's hard to believe that anyone can look so absolutely perfect) but she acts as though she's being doing talkies for decades. The big, big, big question you will ask yourself when watching this is: if this whole crew can act so well, so convincing and naturally why, oh why is the acting in most 1931 films was so truly awful!

This is not a hidden gem or anything like that but it's pleasant and amusing. What this guarantees and importantly it does it without being at all slushy and sentimental in any way (again refreshing for a 1931 film), is a cheerful and warm hug. The script is still actually quite funny today which I think is because it doesn't resort to being stupid or slapstick so it can still raise a smile from a modern audience. As fluffy lightweight romantic comedies go, this is one of the best.

The title notwithstanding, this is a cute little romantic comedy from 1930, and features a lot of star power in Ronald Colman, Myrna Loy, and a very young Loretta Young. Colman is the devil-may-care son of a rich old man who has squandered various opportunities, and is returning home from his most recent in British East Africa. He's so charming and smooth, and you can't help but like the lightness with which he approaches life. He's got a girlfriend in theater star Myrna Loy, but soon falls for the engaged daughter of a friend of the family, Loretta Young. It's interesting to consider the ages of these actors: Young, fresh-faced and just 17(!), Loy, 25, and Colman, 39, but somehow he pulls it off. Young is a bit too girlish in the early scenes in the film, but settles in eventually, and is also quite endearing. Watch it for the two of them.