Poor Robert Ames - he may have been a really nice guy but he always seemed to play heroes who, nowadays, a girl wouldn't want as a gift!!! And because they were both at Pathe/Radio at the same time poor Mary Astor was on the receiving end of his boorishness twice!!! In "Behind Office Doors" he played an abrasive salesman who is plunged into a management job only because Mary believes in him and yet he still treated her like yesterday's leftovers!! Mary was just too smart for that type of role and she must have been thrilled (I don't think)!!! to know he was going to be her leading man in her latest movie "Smart Woman". But this one was a bit different - based on a moderately successful (136 performances) 1930 Broadway play starring Minna Gombell and Stanley Ridges. "Smart Woman" was the start of Mary Astor's quality years - before this she had spent 9 months in a movie wilderness when Fox dropped her contract. Pathe signed her and after a year of pretty ordinary movies ("Holiday" excepted) "Smart Woman" found her on her way!!!
Nancy Gibson (Mary Astor) is keen to be going home from her cruise to everything she loves - house, garden and husband. Sir Guy Harrington (John Halliday) has befriended her and is eager to meet this husband of hers who inspires such faith!! Unfortunately he doesn't - because Don isn't on the dock, he has left Nancy for a cheap blonde!! Within five minutes Nancy's character comes through - she is loving, caring and a friend to her servants.
"One of those blondes - with a mother. They hunt together. What the gal shoots down - mama drags home"!!! - so Billy Ross says about the man slaying Peggy. Boy, Nancy is a smart woman all right - when Don visits (he is so smug, what woman with half a brain would want him - especially with John Halliday in the picture). Nancy plays him at his own game, shocking him with her modern views on marriage, divorce and affairs!! She invites Peggy (gorgeous Noel Francis) and her mother over for a very revealing weekend - she also cables Sir Guy so he can be her imaginary love interest. He attacks his part with gusto - a bit too much gusto!!!
It isn't too long before Sir Guy is falling in with Mary's plans - to try to lure Peggy away from Don. And he finds it incredibly easy, especially since he has appeared in the papers as Britain's Most Eligible Batchelor and Billy (Edward Everett Horton, for once playing a bit of a man about town and not one of his bumbling types) whispers in Peggy's ear that Don is not as solvent as he claims.
The whole cast shines in this biting comedy especially Mary Astor with her beautiful diction - she seems right at home with the sparkling dialogue. Fortunately (or unfortunately) she never had another opportunity of working with Ames who had drunk himself to death before the film's release. Gorgeous Noel Francis, because of her seductive looks, was never able to break out of the "other woman" mold but my, what "other women" she played!! When she was in the cast - the leading actresses had to hold on to their men!!!
Nancy Gibson (Mary Astor) is keen to be going home from her cruise to everything she loves - house, garden and husband. Sir Guy Harrington (John Halliday) has befriended her and is eager to meet this husband of hers who inspires such faith!! Unfortunately he doesn't - because Don isn't on the dock, he has left Nancy for a cheap blonde!! Within five minutes Nancy's character comes through - she is loving, caring and a friend to her servants.
"One of those blondes - with a mother. They hunt together. What the gal shoots down - mama drags home"!!! - so Billy Ross says about the man slaying Peggy. Boy, Nancy is a smart woman all right - when Don visits (he is so smug, what woman with half a brain would want him - especially with John Halliday in the picture). Nancy plays him at his own game, shocking him with her modern views on marriage, divorce and affairs!! She invites Peggy (gorgeous Noel Francis) and her mother over for a very revealing weekend - she also cables Sir Guy so he can be her imaginary love interest. He attacks his part with gusto - a bit too much gusto!!!
It isn't too long before Sir Guy is falling in with Mary's plans - to try to lure Peggy away from Don. And he finds it incredibly easy, especially since he has appeared in the papers as Britain's Most Eligible Batchelor and Billy (Edward Everett Horton, for once playing a bit of a man about town and not one of his bumbling types) whispers in Peggy's ear that Don is not as solvent as he claims.
The whole cast shines in this biting comedy especially Mary Astor with her beautiful diction - she seems right at home with the sparkling dialogue. Fortunately (or unfortunately) she never had another opportunity of working with Ames who had drunk himself to death before the film's release. Gorgeous Noel Francis, because of her seductive looks, was never able to break out of the "other woman" mold but my, what "other women" she played!! When she was in the cast - the leading actresses had to hold on to their men!!!