This is a crazy mashup of a movie that somehow makes it all work. It stars Charles Boyer, most famous as the evil husband from Gaslight, where the now over-popular verb comes from, and Jean Arthur, who is perhaps the best of the leading ladies of screwball comedy. The combination is about right for this film, which combines comedy, romance, drama and even a smidgen of disaster movie just for good measure. And the thing is, all the parts succeed, and they all work in one film. It's almost as if it's a mini-series where each episode is directed by a different auteur in a different style. The main outline of the plot is that Jean Arthur is married to Bruce Vail, an evil shipping magnate played with effective menace and creepiness by Colin "Frankenstein" Clive,
whose obsessive jealousy drives her away. He's convinced there's another man, but there really isn't, but she can't take him any more, and she runs off to Paris to hide out while awaiting the required time for a divorce. Apparently, she has to steer clear of other men for a set time before the divorce can be finalized. Knowing this, Bruce orders their chauffeur to break into her room
and be embracing her when Bruce (and his henchmen) break in, so that it looks like she's been unfaithful. All is going according to plan, except Charles Boyer's Paul, who (we will later discover) is the greatest head waiter in all the world, is putting a drunk friend to bed in his adjacent hotel room and overhears all, and sneaks round via the balcony in time to knock out the chauffeur as he manhandles our heroine (Irene). But then Bruce breaks in, and knowing that he'll just accuse him of being Irene's fancy man (thereby undermining the divorce), he pretends to be a jewel thief, locks Bruce and his men in the closet, and (she thinks) kidnaps Irene. But then he returns all her jewels in the taxi and takes her to his restaurant, the Château Bleu, where we meet the comic relief of the movie, Paul's bosom buddy, comedy Italian Cesar (played by Leo Carrillo, whom I recognized from the bootlegger in If you could only cook), the greatest chef in the world. After a night where Cesar has made them his signature meal of Lobster Cardinale and salade chiffoniere, along with a very special vintage of champagne, and the band has serenaded them till dawn, Irene has found the happiness that has so long eluded her when she returns, walking on air, to her hotel room, to find it the scene of a murder investigation. What we know, and she (and the cops) don't is that Bruce beat the chauffeur to death so that he could frame Paul (whom his mad jealousy for once correctly identified as a lover rather than a thief) for his murder. Seeing what a pickle Paul is in, Irene agrees to go back to Bruce if he agrees not to testify. So, naturally, she doesn't show up to the five o'clock date she's arranged because she's on one of Bruce's ships headed back to New York. Ignoring Cesare's bemused insistence that Irene is just like other women, Paul is sure that something is wrong and he needs to go to Irene. So he and Cesare head for New York, and put a plan into action that will bring her to them rather than having to find her: they take over a New York restaurant and turn it into the hottest place in town. Well, it turns out that Irene left Bruce again to work as a dress model for subsistence wages under an assumed name, but shortly after Paul and Cesare's plan comes to fruition, a detective hired by Bruce finds Irene to tell her that the murderer has been caught. Irene shows up in his office (where he has a giant portrait of her) and he shows her the telegram that proves that this is true. So she agrees to finally rejoin him for good so long as he will testify in Paul's favor. To celebrate their reunion, Bruce decides to take them out for a meal at this new place he's heard about... Of course Paul has a special table reserved and orders the special meal,
but to his amazement, Irene just laughs when she sees him. He totally misreads this as contempt for his profession, instead of the huge relief that the person who's been arrested in Paris is not him. Well, as you can imagine, she ends up not heading to Paris with Bruce (on a Zeppelin this time!) but she cannot talk Paul into escaping to Tahiti (once she's explained about the whole laughing thing) and they end up heading to Paris so that he can save the defendant (probably his drunk friend from the next room). But they leave Cesare behind - or do they? How is it that the chefs on this ship, which is named Irene because it's Bruce's new flagship, know how to cook Lobster Cardinale and salade chiffonade that well? But... why is the ship going so fast in the fog? And what's that looming up ahead of the ship?
Phew! Literally never a dull moment! But perhaps the strongest strand that runs through the whole thing is the sizzling chemistry between Boyer and Arthur. The romance really works, and even though you might think death by iceberg as a punishment by one's insane husband a bit over-the-top, it really cements the relationship. A late contender for best film of this year!
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