Directed by:
Wesley RugglesCinematography:
Ted TetzlaffComposer:
Friedrich HollaenderCast:
Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, John Barrymore, Una Merkel, Edgar Kennedy, Lynne Overman, Irving Bacon, Fritz Feld, Richard Carle, Tom Dugan, Hattie McDaniel (more)Plots(1)
Would-be writer Helen Bartlett is an inveterate teller of tall tales. Her husband, Ken, on the other hand, is an upright lawyer who believes in the truth, and nothing but the truth. Helen gets a job but quits immediately when her boss makes aggressive sexual advances. When he’s found shot dead shortly thereafter, she is accused of murder. Under police interrogation, Helen confesses to the crime, but doesn’t have the courage to tell her husband that her confession was a lie. Ken represents her at trial and pleads the case as self-defence. But there is an odd observer in the courtroom who seems to know the truth about what really happened … This wild comedy of marriage and justice is based on a French play and heaps one implausible incident onto the next. With her tongue often literally in her cheek, and a goodly dose of self-irony, Carole Lombard spins one fantabulous yarn after the next in service of the overwrought plot. Even Hollywood’s czar of public morals, Will H. Hays, had to forgive its evils, due to “the general farcical nature of the entire production and the grotesqueness of the scenes in the court”. (Berlinale)
(more)Cast
Carole Lombard
USA
Best movies:
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Zelig (1983) - a.f.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Fred MacMurray
USA
Best movies:
Bon Voyage! (1962)
Double Indemnity (1944)
The Apartment (1960)
John Barrymore
USA
Best movies:
Midnight (1939)
Counsellor at Law (1933)
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Una Merkel
USA
Best movies:
The Parent Trap (1961)
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Saratoga (1937)
Edgar Kennedy
USA
Best movies:
Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's (1965) - a.f.
Double Wedding (1937)
It's a Wonderful World (1939)
Lynne Overman
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
Union Pacific (1939)
Irving Bacon
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Fritz Feld
German Empire
Best movies:
You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Hello, Dolly! (1969)
Richard Carle
USA
Best movies:
Ninotchka (1939)
It's a Wonderful World (1939)
San Francisco (1936)
Tom Dugan
Ireland
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Hattie McDaniel
USA
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Carefree (1938)
Vivacious Lady (1938)
Arthur Lake
USA
Best movies:
Topper (1937)
Byron Foulger
USA
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
Edison, the Man (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Ned Glass
Poland
Best movies:
North by Northwest (1959)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Charade (1963)
Porter Hall
USA
Best movies:
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Charles Sherlock
USA
Best movies:
East of Eden (1955)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Storm Warning (1951)
Brick Sullivan
USA
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Love Crazy (1941)
Chester Clute
USA
Best movies:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Gwen Kenyon
USA
Best movies:
You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
Phantom Lady (1944)
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
Carmencita Johnson
USA
Best movies:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
The Wind (1928)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)