Devotion

This is a charming, sweet, sometimes clever love story of a barrister and the lovely, dutiful daughter of a well-to-do family in London. Ann Harding wants to get from the grip of "family" (she's sort of a Cinderella here) -- leaves while they are on a holiday and disguises herself as a nanny named Mrs. Halifax. She is hired by Howard who has a small boy (likeable child actor) to look after the boy. Howard almost recognizes Harding beneath her "wig" but it takes a few days before he puts "two and two" together. There's all sorts of great old character actors (Alison Skipworth) who brighten the film with some earthiness before it floats away with ethereal Ann's delicate manner and beauty. One of the charms of a Harding film is looking at her shimmering blonde coiff. Here it's hidden half the time -- but she is quite wonderful in her part and the emotional charge of the story-line is sweet, heartfelt and reminds us of a lost innocence that used to be in early cinema -- that was really lovely.

Ann Harding disguises herself as a dowdy nanny--tough job, and she doesn't quite bring it off here, she's too youthful and pretty--to be near barrister Leslie Howard, likably doing one of his oh-so-British-gentry romantic leads. It's the lightest of trifles, with some lapses of logic, and after the deception is revealed, the movie drags on needlessly for a half an hour or so. But Harding's always a pleasure to watch, even if she doesn't quite convince in either of her British (Mayfair and Cockney) accents. And a plus, as noted by others, is Robert Williams, who's so marvelous in "Platinum Blonde." He had a Spencer Tracy down-to-earth quality that shines here, and he's a natural light comedian (though his character's somewhat off--are we supposed to like him or not?). Nice production values, amiable supporting cast, and was there ever a greater year for clothes than 1931?

Robert Milton directed all of eleven films, and this was somewhere in the middle. Ann Harding stars as the prim and proper governess, who is only taking the job to be near Mr. Trent, a successful lawyer. Trent is played by Leslie Howard, who is slow to catch on, even when he is introduced to "the governess" out of costume, and without her wig. Harrington is played by Robert Williams, who would die quite soon, after making "Platinum Blond" with Jean Harlow. It's all well done, but moves quite slowly. There are complications, of course, and nothing is easy. Enjoyable enough, but so predictable. Harding was nominated for her part in Holiday; Howard was nominated for TWO oscars. and the awesome Alison Skipworth is in here as Mrs. Coggins... she had worked with W.C. Fields in FOUR films! great cast!

No one suffers more in movie after movie than Ann Harding. The suffering is gloriously acute, intense and wonderfully relentless.

This was one stuffy romance. As a lesson in manners and properness, this movie was great, as a love story it was terrible.

Shirley (Ann Harding), the daughter of aristocrats, posed as a "nursery governess" (nanny) in order to work. She wanted to work to be her own woman, for the adventure--you know the cockeypoop rich people say when they're bored. Truthfully, she was doing it for Trent (Leslie Howard), a man she fancied. I guess this was the only way she could get close to him and make him fall in love.

It worked. It was clumsy, awkward, unromantic, and British, but it worked.

Their love was dealt a blow when Trent's estranged wife came home. Before Trent could even tell Shirley that he had an estranged wife, or before he could say that she just appeared again after four years, Shirley was gone. It was the standard romcom split over miscommunication/misunderstanding/misleading.

The whole thing was so stiff and proper it was hard to like. I have a hard time with romances in any case, so an unromantic unfunny romantic comedy certainly had no shot with me.

Free on YouTube.