User Reviews

Kay Winters (Carole Lombard) is vacationing in Europe under the name Kay Summers; she is a famous movie star from Hollywood but wants to avoid crowds. She runs into an attractive young man named Rene (Fernand Gravet) who is on route to a party of a mutual friend, but neither know of this connection. They decide to skip the party altogether and spend the evening dining out. After a delightful night, the two decide to see each other again, but Kay is all set to return to the states. Her love keeps her, though, and she and Rene meet. Soon, love turns sour for the couple and Rene does all he can to create a scandal for Kay. He takes a job as the cook in her home and before long the whole town is swarming with rumors about Kay's new beau.

This film starts out strong, wanes a bit in the middle, and then ends in a fit of laughter. Of course Lombard is best known for her ability with a comedic story, and this film is no exception. Gravet is quite impressive too. He is hysterical in the dinner scene where he does all he can to break up Kay and her fiancée (Ralph Bellamy).

An enjoyable character-driven romantic comedy, and a delight it was. Don't expect the best thing since sliced bread, but for a genre which I don't particularly find to be my cup of tea, this made me smile a bit.

Most of the smiling due to Fernand Gravet's performance, slick, charming, funny and clever, as well as the chemistry between he and Lombarde. The supporting roles filled by Bellamy and Jeans were also spot on, creating a great comedic environment.

I don't put much stock into plot when it comes to romantic comedies, regardless of whether it was made yesterday or 60 years ago, so if you can get past that, then you'll truly enjoy yourself.

7/10

Carole Lombard and Ferdinand Gravet are "Fools for Scandal" in this 1938 comedy from Warner Brothers, also starring Ralph Bellamy and Allen Jenkins. Lombard plays an incognito Hollywood star in Paris who meets Gravet, who falls for her. He's totally broke, and the best parts of the film are the trips to the pawn shop to free his tux, etc., which means his buddy (Jenkins) has to wear a sandwich board around town to advertise the shop. There's also a masquerade party where everyone goes as their favorite animal.

This is a very slight comedy, with Bellamy in the familiar role of Lombard's eager fiancée. Lombard's acting is quite frantic and high pitch, but she's lovely. Such a sad and early end to her life, I always feel sad when I see her.

Good performances, but unless you're a Lombard fanatic, you can skip this one.

and it was largely because of the Lombard/Gable ''scandal''. Their affair had become very public by 1938 and was probably not greeted with open arms by the American filmgoing audience at the time, considering that Gable was already ''respectably'' married. Lombard did not then endear herself to her public and why should she have? Gable was the idol of millions of women and Lombard was an unwelcome bubble burster. Look at the box office performance of this and her subsequent films, they were virtually all flops until her fortunes began to revive, slightly, with Mr and Mrs Smith. By this time the burning jealousy of those millions of women had softened somewhat. It's kind of fascinating. Fools For Scandal was an expensive and derisive echo of My Man Godfrey, and nowhere near as good. But it was by no means the worst film of the year. A misfire, no doubt. But one with a certain amount of cache. One thing's for sure, it did not result in any kind of a contract for Lombard at Warner Brothers, under the helm of the miserly Jack Warner.

The only thing I can't figure out is why Carole Lombard playing a movie star very much like Carole Lombard in Fools For Scandal is why she was going out with a drip like Ralph Bellamy in the first place? Can someone answer that question? I can't imagine her ever coming in contact with him except to buy insurance.

Fools For Scandal has Lombard over in Paris where she meets a penniless count played by Fernand Gravey who gets by on wit, charm and little else. He encounters Lombard and manages to charm his way into her household and he turns out to be a pretty good cook. The man has a way with Crepe Suzettes.

Of course this continental charmer is good also at getting Ralph Bellamy's goat. But that's the whole idea. Bellamy gets more than a few laughs with his exasperation.

Fools For Scandal is not one of Lombard's really great films, but it certainly will satisfy her legion of fans. There's also nice parts for Marie Wilson as Lombard's maid as her usual vacuous self and Allen Jenkins who is Gravey's American friend from Brooklyn.

Now how did those two get together?

Lombard is Kay Winters, american actress in paris. She stumbles into Rene, and wants nothing to do with him at first; she quickly warms up to him when it gets to be dinnertime. The only problem is, they both have dates with other people. Some fun lines in this lightweight comedy, but it takes a while for a story to get going. another fun gag where the characters say fun things while dressed up in animal masks at costume party. Songs by Rodgers and Hart, with a fun one "There's a boy in Harlem", sung by Jeni LeGon. Fun bit where the tables in the restaurant all have telephones, and tables can call one another. Hollywood regulars Allen Jenkins (always the nasal sidekick) and Ralph Bellamy co-star. Bellamy, as usual, plays the awkward country bumpkin. fighting for his girl-friend, just as in His Girl Friday.... sadly, the awesome Carole Lombard would only be around another couple years after making this one -- died in a plane crash in 1942, while married to Clark Gable. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, who was part of the Wizard of Oz uncredited directors confusion. It's pretty good stuff. made right before the U.S. entered WW II. fun, lightweight romp. Lots of talking, so we can tell it started out as a play. feels like it was cleaned up considerably, since we're now deep DEEP in the film production code. lots of talk about preserving Kay's reputation. but the story started in Paris, where things were much grittier and naughtier at this time.

Fernand Gravey is a Marquis in Paris, but he has no money. He runs into movie star Carole Lombard and follows her back to London. What with one thing and another, he and pals Allen Jenkins and Marie Wilson wind up as servants in her household, much to the discomfiture of Miss Lombard's would-be fiance, Ralph Bellamy and the gossipy delight of all London.

There are problems with the production, chief among them the discarding of most of a Richard Rogers-Lorenz Hart set of songs and the rushing of the ending. Yet there are some perfect comedy set pieces, particularly the scene in which Gravey, Jenkins and Miss Wilson serve dinner to Bellamy and Miss Lombard.

It was the last movie that Mervyn Leroy directed at Warner Brothers before he jumped to MGM. He had entered Hollywood as a relative of Jesse Lasky. After a series of back lot jobs, he directed his first movie in 1928 and was off and running. He died in 1987, aged 86.

Carole Lombard plays a famous American actress staying in Paris; she encounters handsome but broke Fernand Gravet, who spends the first part of the film trying to rescue various items from the pawn shop, and then ends up as Lombard's chef—whether she wants him or not. It's all mildly amusing.

Allen Jenkins does his best as Gravet's sidekick but is hampered by lack of strong dialog. Isabel Jeans gives a deliciously gossipy performance as "Lady Malverton," a pillar of society who knows a good scandal when she smells one.

Ralph Bellamy is good as always, playing his usual chump in love with easily-distracted Lombard. One of the picture's few highlights is when Bellamy tries to tell a joke about a man ordering a steak—it's a really crummy joke made worse by Bellamy's chuckling as he tells it. (That this is a highlight unfortunately says a lot about the rest of the picture.)

The story is okay, the production slick, the dialog decent….but it's all just a little slow, or flat, or too predictable. Lombard is beautiful and frenetic as always—but there's just not much to her character, and certainly nothing memorable or unique from her other similar roles. And Fernand Gravet? Whether he was miscast or mismatched, I don't know—but he's just not very appealing.

Overall, a nice try but pretty forgettable. Too bad.

Only because CAROLE LOMBARD and FERNAND GRAVET (he played Johann Strauss in "The Great Waltz") are shown enjoying themselves during a blooper moment on the dinner set of FOOLS FOR SCANDAL (in The Big Breakdowns of '38), did I want to see this romantic comedy. Turns out not to be quite the lark I expected, even though it has the usual Warner contract players in the supporting cast, including RALPH BELLAMY, ALLEN JENKINS, ISABEL JEANS and MARIE Wilson.

In the blooper, Carole had trouble digging into her steak which triggered an outburst from her and giggles from the other players. It was so amusing that I wanted to see the actual scene in the movie.

Unfortunately, FOOLS FOR SCANDAL is the screwiest kind of screwball comedy. None of the characters are the least bit grounded in any kind of reality, strictly cut-outs with dull one-liners as they confront one silly situation after another. The plot is something about a screen actress (Lombard) being stalked by a charming Frenchman whom she eventually hires as a cook. All of her female friends are crazy about him--and she's just, well--crazy. CAROLE LOMBARD plays her role at a fever pitch of fast talking nonsense and FERNAND GRAVET joins the mad pace with good humored sportsmanship. RALPH BELLAMY has his usual third wheel role of a man earnestly in love with Carole but obviously not headed for the altar at the final reel. He plays his role like an eager puppy wanting to please, but the results are still rather meager.

Summing up: Contrived screwball comedy is enjoyable only for the performances of the three leads, but the situations are unbelievable and overacted in the sledgehammer style of acting prevalent in Warner comedies of the '30s.

This film is described in Carole Lombard's biography by Larry Swindell as "one of the horrendous flops of the thirties decade" and by Photoplay as "inane" and "pointless". I must say that I was expecting something as horrendous as Carole's 1933 movie "White Woman", but was pleasantly surprised to find this an endearing, lighthearted romp. The actors seemed to enjoy themselves and recognize that they were not filming Shakespeare, but a screwball comedy. The scenes are varied and interesting, the action moves along at a bright pace and things are anything but dull, including a surprise ending to top things off.

The only criticism I can make is that Carole does seem to shout her lines for some unknown reason. I assume this is the director's fault. And the overall tone of the movie should probably have been toned down and played with more sophistication in spots to give the film a little more class. In a few places it almost goes over the top into a "Three Stooges" mode. Ralph Bellamy really made me laugh a few times. However, Carole has never been more beautiful, and I was not turned off by Fernand Gravet's performance as so many seemed to have been at the time. Come on, no ones perfect. If this film had been made a few years earlier in her career, I think it could easily have been a classic.

American actress (Carole Lombard) visiting Paris meets a penniless Frenchman (Fernand Gravet). He becomes smitten with her and pursues her for the rest of the movie. This doesn't sit well with her dull American beau (Ralph Bellamy).

Carole Lombard tries too hard in this to overcompensate for the weak script by acting like she's in one of her other (better) screwball comedies. She shouts a lot, for some reason, and it's annoying. She is beautiful, though. French actor Fernand Gravet has no chemistry with Lombard and seems ill-suited to being a leading man. It doesn't help matters that he's French yet has a nasally English accent. Presumably this is because Gravet was raised in England. Ralph Bellamy is fine in a role he was very used to by this time. Poor Ralph Bellamy. His career was built on playing the boring nice guy who gets thrown over for the more exciting, flirtatious guy. Nice support from Allen Jenkins, Marie Wilson, and Isabel Jeans. A huge box office flop when released, it's considered by many Lombard fans today to be her worst movie. It's not very funny, that's for sure.

Really feel for Carole Lombard in this one. On one side of her she's weighed down by a humorless screenplay with one, maybe two lines that even approach the amusing (the one about how in Paris everyone speaks French, including the children) while on the other she must stare into the Gallic hole in the screen that is her co star and romantic partner, Fernand Gravey. And next to Lombard I pity director Mervin Le Roy whose constant efforts to keep things fast, snappy and screwball paced is constantly done in by his seven dull scenarists who I won't name since they include three of my favorite Hollywood scribes. Solid C.

When i saw the names of Rodgers & Hart in the credits together with that of Bobby Connolly i sat back and waited for some enjoyable musical numbers.Alas apart from one brief number in the nightclub and another number briefly "sung" by Lombarde and Gravet there was nothing.It is a shame because if this was a comedy there is Pecos little to laugh about.Intersesting to note that there is no credited director.Most of the humour seems to revolve around French cooking.Tell me where in 1930s London would you have purchased Escargot?Unfortunately,the script is poor,Gravet is out of his depth,Lombarde seems to want to get this over with as quickly as she can and Bellamy does his usual sad sap routine.So if it comes up in the TV schedules my advice is don't bother.

Ugh I've been trying to watch screwball comedies from the 30's and 40's and thoroughly enjoying most of them. In reading about them Carole Lombard's name often comes up as the "Queen" of screwball comedies, so when I saw this movie was on I decided to sit back and enjoy seeing the "Queen" at work. While Lombard was funny the movie itself just wasn't, in fact I barely got through it all. As in all movies and especially screwball comedies suspension of disbelief is definitely needed to enjoy the ride but in this case I just couldn't. Ralph Bellamy plays his usual guy who gets dumped for the more fun handsome or charming leading man, in this case played by Fernand Gravey, but for once I can't see why Lombard or anyone would take Gravey over Bellamy. His penniless chef or marquis or whatever he was supposed to be was just plain annoying, I'm assuming this was meant to come off as charming(Lombard's character at least thought so, I think, even that wasn't very convincing) but it wasn't at all.

If I'm to believe Lombard's character is this easily pestered into a relationship then I have to wonder why Bellamy's annoying character hasn't already pestered her into marriage. And her chasing Gravey down the street begging him to take her back after he reveals he has some title was just plain ridiculous(though I guess they had to make something up to set up the final scene). For my first Lombard movie I must say I'm pretty disappointed and really hope this isn't her best work. Hopefully a better leading man or director or script will help.

I've never understood Gravey's appeal and never liked a performance of his. I'm a big Lombard fan but I don't even like her in this one. I'm sorry I watched it.

Carole Lombard was at her peak of beauty and comic technique in this lost old gem about a movie star incognito in Paris. The setup made me think briefly of Notting Hill, but the times were different--it was all about the glittering scenery, the ritzy richness, the absolutely brilliant way with witty dialogue and delicious, delicate physical comedy. The title is not inviting and doesn't have much of anything to do with the film--even if it had been called FOOD FOR SCANDAL that would have been closer to the point--but the interplay between Lombard, Ralph Bellamy, and Fernand Gravet was exquisite. The villains (or villainesses) were first-rate too, making this romp well worth a watch.

Famed actress Kay Winters (Carole Lombard) is vacationing incognito in Paris. She encounters Rene Vilardell (Fernand Gravey), a French marquis who lost all his money. He proposes to give her a tour. She doesn't know about his financial troubles.

I don't really like Rene. I can imagine another actor with more comedic chops could sell this irreverent prankster character. Without that, the character can come off as an entitled arrogant former-rich. In fact, Gravey plays it with a small dose of anger towards his friend. Their friendship is best when they are bantering equals. Rene treats him as a subservient. It's a tough role to cast, and they didn't get it right.

I am not Lombard's biggest fan but I do enjoy her films. I don't think I've seen them all, but this is by far the worst of the ones I've seen. I know that Gravey was a huge star in France, but for me it's kind of like Jerry Lewis being a huge star in France: why?? I found him particularly unappealing in every way. And although it was my second viewing, I never did figure out whether his character was playing her because she was rich or genuinely loved her. Nor did I care. I figured if she ended up with him she got what she deserved. There's a reason this film is not well known. As someone else said, only for diehard Lombard fans.