Kiss and Make-Up

I prefer to watch the classics of the 30's 40's & 50's over any of the mindless garbage todays writers come up with.

An underrated picture of veritable wackiness, KISS AND MAKE UP is a forerunner to the classic screwball comedies of the late-thirties and early-forties. The storyline of a progressive plastic surgeon (Cary Grant) who becomes involved with his greatest creation (Genevieve Tobin) has a great FRANKENSTEIN-esquire aura that contains some surprisingly dark overtones for a film comedy of this era – a darkness which is present, but not really explored. The film is benefited greatly by Cary Grant, who gets an early chance to display his grand prowess at farce, which is one of the many qualities that inevitably made him a huge Hollywood star. The rest of the cast is also rounded out acceptably, with Tobin, Helen Mack, and Edward Everett Horton all turning in fine work.

On the downside, the film is extremely episodic, which is not inherently a problem in many cases, but here it prevents the picture from gelling into the knockabout farce it intended to be. Also somewhat detrimental is director Harlan Thompson's approach to the material, which often lacks energy or pizazz; make no mistake, Thompson's work is perfectly acceptable, but I could not help but imagine how truly dynamic the film could have been with Howard Hawks or (later) Peter Bogdanovich in the director's chair. Thompson earns major points for the frantic final chase scene, however, which concludes the film with a thunderous, side-splitting, wig-ripping bang! The movie as a whole is solidly enjoyable, but this terrific end sequence alone raises it's rating by at least a notch or two.

KISS AND MAKE-UP (Paramount, 1934), directed by Harlan Thompson, gives promise as being some sort of domestic comedy about troubled marriage, but in fact is a very silly, virtually plot less comedy dealing with cosmetics. Starring Cary Grant, the story is set in Paris, France, where he plays Maurice LaMarr, a doctor in charge of a modernistic beauty salon in which women come to be made beautiful and glamorous. He is loved by Annie Hensen (Helen Mack), his loyal secretary, however, after encountering Eve (Genevieve Tobin), the wife of Marcel Caron (Edward Everett Horton), whom he has made more beautiful than the rest, he falls madly in love with her. After Marcel divorces his Eve, it leaves her free to marry Maurice, who soon realizes his mistake after he finds that she isn't really beautiful after all. During their honeymoon after Maurice sings a song looking towards the waves at the beach, Eve approaches him in saying, "Kiss me." Getting a full view of a face full of cosmetics, he replies in a frightful way, "No, NO!" As for Annie, who feels she has lost the man she loves, decides to run off and marry Marcel.

With Grant in the role that appears to be Maurice Chevalier influenced, the film's introductory opening goes at great lengths in not only showcasing the facial clips of the major lead actors and their character roles, but a list of young starlets billed as "The Wampas Baby Stars of 1934" including some now obscure names as Lucille Lund, Jacqueline Wells (both of Universal's "The Black Cat" fame); Jean Gale, Hazel Hayes, Gigi Parrish, and much more. Look fast for future film star Ann Sheridan as one of the models who asks, "Doctor, what is that terrible noise?" in regards to some hammering. The supporting actors who partake in the story are Mona Maris as Countess Rita; Lucien Littlefield as Max Pascal; Toby Wing as Consuelo Claghorne; and Rafael Storm as Rolando.

A Paramount gag comedy that makes little sense, and getting plenty of laughs, includes several key elements where a woman customer comes to the shop to be made beautiful only to come out completely bald; and a chase climax, reminiscent to Laurel and Hardy's COUNTY HOSPITAL (1932), having Grant, becoming dizzy and confused while under either, going on a merry mad chase after Annie and Marcel in a taxi down a very crowded street.

Aside from comedy, which this movie has plenty to offer, contains two songs, the campy "Cornbeaf and Cabbage - I Love You" (sung by Helen Mack and Edward Everett Horton) and "Love Divided By Two" (sung twice by Cary Grant), by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin, the latter used frequently through underscoring. In spite of Grant's reputation as a debonair leading man of screwball comedies, and a fine actor when it comes to heavy dramatics, he demonstrates how well he can sing, and how sparingly he's done so in his long career. Genevieve Tobin, on loan from Warner Brothers, is showcased in the usual manner as a free-spirited woman far from being loyal to the men who love her; Edward Everett Horton, with curly hair and red lips, as the jealous ex-husband to be; and Helen Mack (best known for her performance in RKO's THE SON OF KONG, 1933) satisfactory as the good but sensible girl. Grant and Mack would share another movie, the better known comedy of HIS GIRL Friday (Columbia, 1940), with Grant and Rosalind Russell in the leads, and Miss Mack in a smaller but notable performance.

KISS AND MAKE UP is harmless fun, enjoyable by those who appreciate this sort of material where writers tend to throw in anything to stretch out the story to feature length 70 minutes. Interestingly, of all the movies from the Paramount library that were broadcast on New York City's WPIX, Channel 11 (1965-1974), KISS AND MAKE-UP survived the longest, making its final air date on that station in mid 1975 before drifting to obscurity.

KISS AND MAKE UP may not be top-of-the-line Cary Grant, but no disaster by any means either. It's a sort of offbeat film Grant might have looked back and asking himself, "Did I really do this?" Distributed to DVD in 2006, on the double-bill with another Grant comedy, THIRTY DAY PRINCESS (1934), KISS AND MAKE-UP is a worthy re-discovery. (***)

Cary Grant, Genevieve Tobin, Helen Mack, and Edward Everett Horton star in "Kiss and Make Up," a 1934 film. Grant plays a popular plastic surgeon, Dr. Maurice Lamar (the film takes place in France). He falls for one of his makeovers (Tobin) who leaves her husband (Horton) and marries Lamar. Despite her looks, Lamar soon realizes he has created a monster. Meanwhile, Lamar's secretary Anne is in love with him and becomes increasingly unhappy as he seems to need her constantly but takes her for granted. Can you guess what happens? This actually is a musical with three songs, and Grant does his own singing. He must have - no one could have dubbed his awful tremolo. Other than that, he actually had a pleasant singing voice.

A very slight comedy, and I was surprised to read that Carole Lombard was supposed to play the role of the secretary but turned it down. Good move. And that casting wouldn't have worked. Lombard was certainly too beautiful to have been ignored by Lamar. Mack was pretty without being an absolute knockout. Genevieve Tobin does a good job as the annoying Eve, and Horton is funny as her husband, who wants his wife's old looks and personality back.

This film was really beneath Grant but he was too new to turn it down. He is perfect for the role of a handsome, dapper womanizer and is very good.

See it for the young Grant, but don't expect too much.

maybe I'm a fool for silly Depression comedies, but even though "Kiss And Make-Up" is a very minor comedy, and not particularly well written, it does have most of the elements needed for people who love pre-code Depression films to enjoy it.

Everybody knows that Cary Grant's Paramount films were generally weak, and that he was nowhere close to establishing his screen personality during these early years.

I had never seen this film before, and I quite enjoyed it. But, jeez, gang, you haven't lived until you've heard Cary Grant, Helen Mack and Edward Everett Horton attempt to belt out the songs! Absolutely incredible. Some of the worst examples of singing in a film from a major studio.

You will enjoy it too....if you sit back and not expect a "Citizen Kane"-quality screenplay!