[6]

This is a serendipitous romantic comedy pairing frequent costars Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. Gable plays a reporter who runs away with a press-weary heiress, hoping to snag the headline of the century. But naturally, he falls in love with the dame, which would be complicated enough without being mistaken for spies. Gable and Crawford are having fun and it shows — especially when they find refuge in a old French castle. The caretaker, played by sweet Donald Meek, mistakes them for ghosts of royalty. The three dance minuets to a music box while the caretaker’s imaginary dog watches. This kind of scene is one of the reasons I love screwball comedies. They lend themselves to a charming eccentricity that more serious or sentimental movies can’t sustain. This kind of story always works best with a third wheel, and Franchot Tone fits the bill. The (somewhat) friendly rivalry between the two men provides a nice running joke throughout the movie, as Gable constantly one-ups his fellow reporter. The story borrows generously from Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night, a superior film also starring Gable, but this is the best possible kind of rehash.