Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck made three films together and The Mad Miss Manton was the first. I think that RKO must have offered this one to Carole Lombard or Jean Arthur and they had the sense to turn it down. Stanwyck and Fonda would do far better in Paramount's The Lady Eve.
According to the films of Henry Fonda, Fonda really disliked this one, but in 1938 he was still not in a position to pick and choose his material.
Not to say that he doesn't have his funny moments, especially in a hospital where he plays up his injuries to be far more serious than they were in order to elicit Stanwyck's sympathy. And he does get hit with a pitcher of water by Hattie McDaniel.
But try as I might, I could not see much humor in a bunch of ditzy debutantes obstructing a murder investigation for their own amusement. Stanwyck and her cronies are guilty of obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence and Sam Levene as the investigating police officer ought to have run them all in.
I'd pass this one by as an example of bad screwball comedy.
According to the films of Henry Fonda, Fonda really disliked this one, but in 1938 he was still not in a position to pick and choose his material.
Not to say that he doesn't have his funny moments, especially in a hospital where he plays up his injuries to be far more serious than they were in order to elicit Stanwyck's sympathy. And he does get hit with a pitcher of water by Hattie McDaniel.
But try as I might, I could not see much humor in a bunch of ditzy debutantes obstructing a murder investigation for their own amusement. Stanwyck and her cronies are guilty of obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence and Sam Levene as the investigating police officer ought to have run them all in.
I'd pass this one by as an example of bad screwball comedy.