It's good to have this almost excellent screwball delight now available on an excellent Columbia/Sony DVD. Although it's not a fraction as famous as My Man Godfrey or Bringing Up Baby, I think it's a much funnier film, even though it does have a couple of minor defects – not in the writing, but in the playing. First off, I think that first-billed Herbert Marshall is miscast. His acting is faultless, but his personality is wrong. For me, Herbert Marshall lacks charm. It's hard to believe that a lovely girl like Jean Arthur would fall in love with him.
My second problem player is Leo Carillo. I think everyone would agree that he over-acts. Problem is that he is actually required to do so, in order to keep up with Lionel Stander. And the funny thing is that we don't mind Lionel over-acting. In fact, we enjoy it. He always shouts and over-reacts because that is his shtick. You could say that's Carillo's method of drawing attention to himself too. But I nearly always find Carillo's performances at least slightly offensive. I don't have the same reaction to Stander's, because Stander is sending up gangsters – or at least movie gangsters. On the other hand, Carillo is satirizing Mexicans. All Mexicans! True, he wasn't the only player in the what-a-dumb-lot-Mexicans-are business, but he was certainly the most prominent. I always cringe when his name comes up on the screen.
Aside from the not-always-appropriate presence of Marshall and Carillo, If You Could Only Cook is a delightfully engaging movie. Almost one of the best!
My second problem player is Leo Carillo. I think everyone would agree that he over-acts. Problem is that he is actually required to do so, in order to keep up with Lionel Stander. And the funny thing is that we don't mind Lionel over-acting. In fact, we enjoy it. He always shouts and over-reacts because that is his shtick. You could say that's Carillo's method of drawing attention to himself too. But I nearly always find Carillo's performances at least slightly offensive. I don't have the same reaction to Stander's, because Stander is sending up gangsters – or at least movie gangsters. On the other hand, Carillo is satirizing Mexicans. All Mexicans! True, he wasn't the only player in the what-a-dumb-lot-Mexicans-are business, but he was certainly the most prominent. I always cringe when his name comes up on the screen.
Aside from the not-always-appropriate presence of Marshall and Carillo, If You Could Only Cook is a delightfully engaging movie. Almost one of the best!