Film review: If You Could Only Cook (1935)

Another Jean Arthur, this time a thoroughly charming little (1 hour 11 mins) number about a rich car designer (Herbert Marshall) sitting down next to the suddenly homeless Arthur on a park bench as she combs the want ads for work

and somehow getting swept up in her plan to become a butler-cook pair for an eccentric rich man, who turns out to be a gangster ex-bootlegger with a Chico Marx-esque cod Italian accent (and a strange aversion to strong garlic, that doesn't seem to fit, but that is the reason that Arthur is hired as cook).  Arthur doesn't know who Marshall really is, of course, and he's supposed to wed a society figure whom we know only has eyes for his millions.  One of the funnier scenes is when he sneaks away the first night to learn how to buttle from his own butler, who lets slip some less than flattering opinions about him.  Will the fake couple become a real couple?  Well, duh.  But it's an entertaining (and brisk) journey, and the bootlegger turns out to have a heart of gold.