Vicomte Maurice Chevalier is leading a carefree life, with plenty of lovers -- Adrienne Ames, Leah Ray, the wife of butler Edward Everett Horton -- when some people drop Baby Leroy (in his first film appearance) on his doorstep. Unlike W. C. Fields, Chevalier is enchanted with the tyke. He calls an agency for a nurse. Helen Twelvetrees shows up.
It not one of Chevalier's better vehicles. The songs he sings are not particularly distinguished -- I'd never heard any of them before -- and the three-way courtship between him, Miss Twelvetrees and Baby Leroy proceeds at an erratic pace, interrupted by comedy set pieces lovingly directed by Norman Taurog. They drain alll the momentum from the proceedings, and then the plot begins again with an almost audible clunk.
I have commented in some of my other reviews that It might have been pleasant for some of the dramatic lady stars of the era to have appeared in a comedy instead of suffering interminably. Garbo had a great comedy turn under Lubitsch, and Sylvia Sidney got her chance more than half a century after the era for Tim Burton. Perhaps Miss Twelvetrees could have been funny instead of fragile for some more skilled director; while Taurog was great at handling skilled funny people, perhaps he lacked the chops to get Miss Twelvetrees to be amusing; or perhaps he felt that he didn't wish to interfere with Chevalier's stardom. Or perhaps editor Otho Lovering, who cut some nice dramas, including several for Ford, didn't have a sense for funny pacing.
It not one of Chevalier's better vehicles. The songs he sings are not particularly distinguished -- I'd never heard any of them before -- and the three-way courtship between him, Miss Twelvetrees and Baby Leroy proceeds at an erratic pace, interrupted by comedy set pieces lovingly directed by Norman Taurog. They drain alll the momentum from the proceedings, and then the plot begins again with an almost audible clunk.
I have commented in some of my other reviews that It might have been pleasant for some of the dramatic lady stars of the era to have appeared in a comedy instead of suffering interminably. Garbo had a great comedy turn under Lubitsch, and Sylvia Sidney got her chance more than half a century after the era for Tim Burton. Perhaps Miss Twelvetrees could have been funny instead of fragile for some more skilled director; while Taurog was great at handling skilled funny people, perhaps he lacked the chops to get Miss Twelvetrees to be amusing; or perhaps he felt that he didn't wish to interfere with Chevalier's stardom. Or perhaps editor Otho Lovering, who cut some nice dramas, including several for Ford, didn't have a sense for funny pacing.