By Candlelight *** (1933, Elissa Landi, Paul Lukas, Nils Asther, Esther Ralston, Dorothy Revier) – Classic Movie Review 7359

Frankenstein director James Whale has a whale of a time with his 1934 classy little screwball romantic comedy By Candlelight about a lady’s maid, Marie (Elissa Landi), who meets a butler/ valet Josef (Paul Lukas) on a train and mistakes him for his master, a prince, the Prince Alfred von Rommer (Nils Asther). Oh, and he thinks that she is a countess, the Countess von Rischenheim (Dorothy Revier).

Landi and Lukas, plus Asther as the prince and Revier as the countess, as well as Lawrence Grant as the Count von Rischenheim, Esther Ralston as Baroness von Ballin and Warburton Gamble as Baron von Ballin, make this amusing old stuff go. It is a game cast, up for the screwball shenanigans.

By Candlelight (1934) is based on Siegfried Geyer’s German play Candle Light.

By Candlelight is directed by James Whale, runs 72 minutes, is released by Universal, is written by Hans Kraly [Hanns Kräly] (adaptation), F Hugh Herbert, Karen de Wolf [Karen DeWolf] (additional dialogue) and Ruth Cummings, based on Siegfried Geyer’s German play Candle Light, is shot in black and white by John J Mescall, is produced by Carl Laemmle Jr and Julius Bernheim, and scored by W Franke Harling, with Art Direction by Charles D Hall.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7359

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