Totally charming-- a Cinderella farce that's one of the forgotten peaks of '30s comedy. It's so well-paced that you never feel like you're waiting for the next scene, and it's over fast. It's written like a Continental farce, with familiar high and low and pretend social types, but it has the distinctively sour Brackett-Wilder tone-- plus the in-jokes typical of '30s comedies (Colbert has no French, jokes about her nose, etc.) The actors, even Ameche (a block of wood in the Fox musicals but effective here) all seem unusally relaxed. Maybe it's because they have such good lines to read. It's all high artifice with every line turned and polished; it never touches the ground. Colbert is the American showgirl who floats into Paris high life on a cloud of lies and luck. She gets ensnared in a plot made up by a man (Barrymore) whose wife (Astor) is cheating (with Lederer). Meanwhile, an honest cabbie (Ameche) who's fallen for her turns up and complicates everything. Ameche and Colbert, totally different types, look magnetic in their scenes together-- but maybe it's because she keeps staring at him with those beautiful eyes. What makes it funny is that it's all entirely plausible. Remade in 1945 and 2008, but if you like '30s comedy don't miss this one.
