Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur had an academy award for best script, and no wonder. The story is very much related with Ferenc Molnar's "Liliom" (filmed a number of times even by Fritz Lang and even turned into a musical) and tells about the same story of redemption. Noel Coward is as excellent here as Charles Boyer in Fritz Lang's film. He is an unbearable snob and as vicious as a serpent as an unscrupulous publisher who decides to couple with a young poetess who is already engaged. There is more than one duel as a consequence in this film. When Cora finally sees through Noel Coward and rejects him, she curses him by hoping for him to have an aircrash accident, which he has. Then he turns into a totally different character.
The music is also very well chosen for this picture, wildly romantic at times, and finally turning into Rachmaninov's second piano concerto (but without piano) .like in Noel Coward's perhaps most personal drama and film, "Brief Encounter" with David Lean 1947. It's the scipt above all that deserves momentous credits for its sustained wit and intelligence. All the characters are convincing, from the innocence of Cora to the bathos of Paul Dekker and all the parasites around Coward. It could be seen as a major effort of Noel Coward, in making this character, to prove himself human after all, in which he succeeds.
The music is also very well chosen for this picture, wildly romantic at times, and finally turning into Rachmaninov's second piano concerto (but without piano) .like in Noel Coward's perhaps most personal drama and film, "Brief Encounter" with David Lean 1947. It's the scipt above all that deserves momentous credits for its sustained wit and intelligence. All the characters are convincing, from the innocence of Cora to the bathos of Paul Dekker and all the parasites around Coward. It could be seen as a major effort of Noel Coward, in making this character, to prove himself human after all, in which he succeeds.