User Reviews

The Turner Classic Movie Channel has spent the month of January doing the films of one of my favorite actors, Robert Montgomery. His films are mostly rarely watched these days, except for those that were atypical for most of his career - meaning that the roles that frequently reappear on television are THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, THE LADY IN THE LAKE, JUNE BRIDE, NIGHT MUST FALL, THE SAXON CHARM, RIDE THE PINK HORSE, RAGE IN HEAVEN, THE EARL OF CHICAGO (in short the films he fought to get the roles in because they were not the usual comic fluff he usually appeared in). It's ironic that nowadays when one thinks of Montgomery's career it is the films that were mostly made after 1937 that are pushed - the ones that broke the original image that MGM and Louis B. Mayer pushed. The pity of this is that Montgomery was a gifted comedian, and saved many films from being routine.

PETTICOAT FEVER is one such film. Made in 1936 with PICADILLY JIM and TROUBLE FOR TWO it was a banner year of good performances by Montgomery, and helped lead to his being able to convince the powers that be at MGM to allow him to play "Danny" in NIGHT MUST FALL the next year.

PETTICOAT FEVER is set in Labrador, and Montgomery is a weather station operator there named Dascom Dinsmore. He has been living there for five years, and has not been in the company of a woman (except for Inuit women) for most of that time. He has a girlfriend of sorts named Clara (Winifred Shotter) who he sort of proposed to, but it's been two years since he has heard from her, so that he believes she has given up on him.

Dinsmore's world is rocked when Sir James Felton and Irene Campton (Reginald Owen and Myrna Loy) show up. They were flying to Toronto for a business meeting that Felton was to address. Felton is engaged to Campton, but Dinsmore finds her enchanting...and gradually she finds him equally attractive. Certainly the pompous, self-important, and hopelessly inept Felton is no competition (it is a measure of Owen's acting that he keeps the character entertaining even if one finds it hard to believe such a boob is a Canadian captain of industry).

There is something surreal about this film - probably due to the original play. While the "Labrador" scenery is quite phony looking it does serve it's purpose for the comedy (witness th polar bear sequence). But the height of the surrealism is the dinner Dinsmore serves his guests, a dinner of "pemmican steaks", which Owen eats with real gusto. Owen (a minor noble as a baronet) is dressed in normal clothing - a winter suit for the climate). But Montgomery is dressed in his suit of evening dress (as though attending a ball at the embassy). Loy, seeing him dress up, likewise puts on a gown. They are being served by Dinsmore's servant - assistant, the Inuit Kimo (Otto Yamaoka), who is wearing a suit of evening dress too - it turns out that it is Owen's! Owen, who earlier insisted that Dinsmore change into clothing more suitable to his station, is the only person who is improperly dressed for this dinner!! Montgomery was MGM's most elegant actor in a tuxedo or evening dress (Franchot Tone was the his closest rival). It is a toss-up in movie if Montgomery or Fred Astaire was the more elegant figure in such suits. Hard to decide.

The course of love does not move smoothly in comedy or drama. Clara shows up (we are tipped off too early about this at the start of the film when we see her on an icebound ship). Will Dinsmore break with Clara? Will Irene break with Felton? The film is funny, and Loy and Montgomery make a nice couple. They had appeared together in one other film, and both were in separate scenes in a second, before this movie. But this would be their last film together.

One last interesting point - at the start of the film when the credits are shown, you see illustrations of men and women in comic situations. They are based on the art work of John Held Jr., the great cartoonist/illustrator of the 1920s and 1930s - who was the recorder of the flapper and "Jazz Age". It's an unusual choice - as it has absolutely nothing to do with the film's plot or Labrador.

This 1936 picture was one of the three that Robert Montgomery did for the studio that year. "Petticoat Fever", directed by George Fitzmaurice, pairs Mr. Montgomery with another star, who was an excellent comedienne, as well as a dramatic actress, Myrna Loy.

The film is a typical movie of those innocent years where the viewer is asked to believe the small plane that crashes on the ice is only a minor inconvenience, as nothing happens to the two occupants of the aircraft. It also sets in motion a love triangle where Dascom Disnsmore gets in the middle of Irene and Sir James when he falls head over heels in love with the beautiful woman from the wreck.

Robert Montgomery did better films than this one, of course, but his chemistry with Myrna Loy is about the best thing going for the movie. Reginald Owen tries, but his character is not as well drawn as the others. Winifred Shotter puts in an appearance as the lovely Clara, who complicates things a bit for everyone.

"Petticoat Fever" offers a mild entertainment for viewers of these type of films.

The remoteness of a cabin in Labrador where Robert Montgomery sits at his wireless set with only some Eskimo retainers for company is not exactly the setting one would think of for drawing room comedy. But in Petticoat Fever Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy and the rest of the cast make it work.

Montgomery is not all he seems, he's a minor offshoot from a noble family in a kind of exile for some indiscreet behavior. You have to say though he does manage to live well. I mean when he does get some unexpected guests he does entertain well given his circumstances.

The guests are Myrna Loy and Reginald Owen and he's some London society bigwig. Their plane has crash landed and they're forced to stay with Montgomery for a bit. He's a most hospitable host and the usual happens with Bob and Myrna.

Things get sidetracked a bit Gloria Shotter shows up who is a woman who think she has an understanding with Montgomery, but these things do work out in these kind of films.

As the only conversation that Montgomery has listen to some of the understated lines that Otto Yamaoka has. That Japanese-American playing an Eskimo has some wit to him. Sadly I read he spent World War II interned and never did return to the screen post World War II.

Petticoat Fever is a very bright comedy that still hold up after over 80 years, I recommend it highly.

I was never a big fan of ROBERT MONTGOMERY but have to admit he acquits himself very well in this light romantic comedy opposite the very adroit MYRNA LOY, who could play either comedy or drama with equal finesse. The two of them hold this little tale together--and since the camera is on them most of the time, it's not really that difficult to do.

The film might more aptly be titled "Cabin Fever" because once Loy's plane crashes (with would-be husband Reginald Owen aboard), she spends most of the movie cabin bound with lonely wireless operator Montgomery in the wilds of Labrador. All of it has a stage-bound look and is obviously photographed on the MGM sound stages with artificial snow and ice for a few background shots. The flimsy tale has Montgomery falling head over heels in love with the stranded Loy, who at first resists his charm but soon becomes undecided about being Reginald Owen's fiancé.

It's so simple and yet it plays extremely well because of some bright dialog and the effortless ease with which Montgomery and Loy play screwball comedy. Not as fortunate is REGINALD OWEN, given to the kind of mugging and overplaying that usually sinks a film like this. But it's the skillful emoting of the two stars that saves the day.

A pleasant trifle, typical of '30s film fare in this realm.

Trivia note: Watch for a glimpse of handsome young DENNIS MORGAN as a band singer in a nightclub scene in an uncredited bit role.

This diverting little comedy is refreshingly different from the standard rich boy-wolf chases girl comedies of the 30s. It's set in the Alaskan wilderness instead of of swanky night clubs and penthouses, the situations are set up to be amusing rather than hilarious, and it's played by Montgomery and Loy with a kind of knowing delicacy rather than wryness or zaniness.

An atypical screwball film with two charming stars, Petticoat Fever is a fun popcorn flick, but don't expect a snowbound My Man Godfrey or anything.

It takes place in the arctic- we're meant to believe Labrador, but I'm Canadian and can tell you that our winters DO NOT look like what the M-G-M backlot want you to believe. That's the main problem with this film- you can tell it's an arctic backlot, and no amount of suspending disbelief will change that.

Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery are good in roles that seem to be a bit underwritten- but this was one of those "Churn 'em out weekly!" flicks that M-G-M were so good at in the 1920s, 30s and early 40s. Myrna Loy's character is a bit overly stupid, to the point of groaning, but she's a good enough actress that you can (mostly) ignore it.

The actors that played the respective fiancé(e)s of Loy and Montgomery were cardboard people, so that it wouldn't be a two person show. The casual casting of Asian people as Eskimos (their words, not mine) is a bit cringey, but I can live with it. I'm not that sensitive.

The plot is threadbare and the screenplay is sub-par- but Robert Montgomery looks very handsome in his furs (and later, his three-piece dinner jacket). It's nice to see Loy playing a single woman instead of the perfect wife/mother.

All in all, good escapist M-G-M fluff. You won't be wanting to beat your brains out by the end.

Robert Montgomery-Myrna Loy farce about Loy (Irene) and her fiancé, played by Reginald Owen, stranded in Labrador when their plane crashes. (That's really what should have happened to this highly predictable film.) Montgomery lives there while he is waiting for his fiancé.

Surprise! Montgomery and Loy are soon attracted to each other. The scene with the bear is so contrived. We knew it was a tamed bear all along.

Complications ensue when Clara shows up. Loy wants Montgomery to tell Clara that they should part ways, when he refuses, she wants to leave at once.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how this will end. Out with all that snow, it's just too cold for anyone!

Robert Montgomery is a fine actor with an impressive range in both comedy and drama. His default settings would have seemed to make him a sort of good-looking, dapper chump, usually a funny one, and he could have sailed through a fine career as well-dressed arm-candy, but he was far too talented to fall into any such persona. In comedy, he was at his sharpest playing dryer, edgier funnymen who were in on the joke. "Petticoat Fever" gives him the funniest character I've seen him play, and he energizes this oddly claustrophobic and icebound screwball sleeper in a way that is purely masterful.

Montgomery is a sour, mumbling radio operator stuck in a frozen isolation that is slowly grinding his nerves until Myrna Loy and her fiancé, Reginald Owen, are stranded in his rustic cabin by airplane trouble. Screwball comedies usually move rapidly from place to place, but the fun here is in Montgomery's scheming and manipulation to keep Loy within reach. His sparring with her and especially with a wonderfully over-the-top Owen- who knew he could be this funny?- is a case of a fine script made special in performance. The dialogue is terrific at times, and the pacing is briskly fun, but Montgomery's face tells the story in every scene- he's a clown on a mission and he brings this one home with a bang. There isn't a wasted moment. "Petticoat Fever" deserves to grow a reputation.

Sir James (Reginald Owen) and his fiancee Irene (Myrna Loy) crash land in snowy Labrador, and require the hospitality of local radio operator "Dinsmore" (Robert Montgomery). Montgomery, Owen, and Loy were old hands in showbiz by this time, so it all goes off without a hitch. Ongoing fun banter between Dinsmore and Kimo, as they lament not having any women around for miles. Sir James realizes that Dinsmore is a ladies-man, and does his best to keep him away from Irene. Dinsmore always has a nutty, crazy but fun spirit about him, and the whole thing is a bit of a caper. Sir James resents Dinsmore's light hearted flirtations toward Irene, and is determined to try to take Irene away from this spot. So much talking, but always pretty lively. we can tell this started as a play, this one by Mark Reed. directed by George Fitzmaurice, who had started EARLY in the silents. This one came towards the end of Fitzmaurice's days... he died quite young at 55. and as of May 2018, his imdb profile photo is a pic of him standing next to a 1927 limousine... but the way imdb crops the profile image, you can only see the limousine. The film is a lot of fun, if you just buy in and enjoy the ride!