This is one of those "snooty society dame learns what's what from a a real working-class joe" comedies that were never bettered after "It Happened One Night," so it's kind of depressing to see that film's lead Colbert in an inferior imitation. The comedy here is pretty lowbrow, which would be OK in a knockabout B-grade film, but comes off lazy and stupid in a glossy Paramount "A" for two major stars. A year before "Double Indemnity," MacMurray plays another two-fisted lout in less mortal peril from a glamorous dame, a hard-hat tunnel-digging "sandhog" to her glossy-magazine photographer. He could do comedy, obviously, but the characters and writing don't do him or Colbert any favors.
Nor does the material do much for Leisen, a gay director who voluntarily or otherwise adopts the usual mainstream Hollywood formula for class warfare: The upper classes are all gay (or, worse, women), and the lower classes are all he-men (apparently their women are scarce) who talk like they stepped out of Damon Runyon story. There's a really silly dream sequence where Macmurray is Superman (or something like), and you keep expecting a song or two to likewise liven up the predictable "I hate you you great big ape, oh I...love you!!!" progress, but that never arrives. It's a watchable but completely contrived and uninspired waste of first class talent all around, even if it does get somewhat better toward the end by turning into a sort of action thriller. It must have done all right at the time, though, since the same director and stars were back against the next year in "Practically Yours."
Nor does the material do much for Leisen, a gay director who voluntarily or otherwise adopts the usual mainstream Hollywood formula for class warfare: The upper classes are all gay (or, worse, women), and the lower classes are all he-men (apparently their women are scarce) who talk like they stepped out of Damon Runyon story. There's a really silly dream sequence where Macmurray is Superman (or something like), and you keep expecting a song or two to likewise liven up the predictable "I hate you you great big ape, oh I...love you!!!" progress, but that never arrives. It's a watchable but completely contrived and uninspired waste of first class talent all around, even if it does get somewhat better toward the end by turning into a sort of action thriller. It must have done all right at the time, though, since the same director and stars were back against the next year in "Practically Yours."