Kiss and Make-Up *** (1934, Cary Grant, Helen Mack, Genevieve Tobin, Edward Everett Horton) – Classic Movie Review 7348

Director Harlan Thompson’s minor 1934 Paramount Pictures black and white comedy stars Cary Grant as Dr Maurice Lamar, a Paris beautician (!) who marries divorcée customer Eve Caron (Genevieve Tobin). But all about Eve is that she is only interested in making herself up and not making up to him. So Cary carries on with other lovelies till he suddenly notices simple plain secretary Anne (Helen Mack), when she announces that she is going down the aisle with Tobin’s first husband, Marcel (Edward Everett Horton).

With the all-important screenplay by Harlan Thompson and George Marion Jr based on the play by Stephen Bekeffi [István Békeffy], this is emaciated stuff all dressed up and nowhere to go – surprisingly so when the partner-swapping farcical premise is so well set up and promising. However, the endlessly delightful Grant and Edward Everett Horton come out smelling sweet though – they are genuinely funny – and a lot of the film is quite amusing.

Ann Sheridan (billed as Clara Lou Sheridan) appears in a walk-on as a beautician. Also in the cast are Lucien Littlefield, Mona Maris, Katherine Williams, Lucille Lund, Rafael Storm, Doris Lloyd, Sam Ash, Helena Phillips Evans, Toby Wing, Henry Armetta, George Beranger and Dorothy Christy.

The adaptation of the play by Stephen Bekeffi [István Békeffy] is by Jane Hinton.

It is one of the five discs on the Cary Grant: Screen Legend Collection [DVD] [2006] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], along with Thirty Day Princess (1934), Wings in the Dark (1935), Big Brown Eyes (1936) and Wedding Present (1936).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7348

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