Cafe Society *** (1939, Madeleine Carroll, Fred MacMurray, Shirley Ross, Claude Gillingwater, Jessie Ralph, Allyn Joslyn) – Classic Movie Review 8961

Director Edward H Griffith’s amusing 1939 screwball romantic comedy Cafe Society stars Fred MacMurray, who is paired in the first of four films with luscious blonde Madeleine Carroll, who plays a headstrong member of wealthy café society cut down to size by amorous reporter MacMurray. She vamps him only to get him to take sexy pictures of her to have her name appear in social reporter Allyn Joslyn’s column, but he thinks that she really loves him.

Carroll was not a born comedienne but she has a lightness of touch here sparked by nice old MacMurray’s warm comedic expertise. It was clear they had chemistry for they teamed the same year for Honeymoon in Bali. Joslyn is fun and so is Claude Gillingwater as Carroll’s uncle.

Also in the cast are Shirley Ross, Jessie Ralph, Don Alvarado, Mira McKinney, Charles Trowbridge, Paul Hurst, Robert Emmett Keane, Frank Dawson, Dorothy Tree, Harlan Briggs, Lillian Yarbo, Eddie Borden, Eddie Dunn and Al Hill.

Cafe Society is directed by Edward H Griffith, runs 83 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Virginia Van Upp (story and screenplay), is shot in black and white by Ted Tetzlaff, is produced by Jeff Lazarus, is scored by Boris Morros and is designed by Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegte.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8961

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