User Reviews

The film is stolen by Kate Cutler as the all knowing wife of Lord Henry (Frederick Kerr), the pompous owner of a distinguished country home (complete with farm animals) who is completely unaware that the smell he's sticking his nose up at is his foot, so far in his mouth that he's got athlete's tonsils. She drops quick comments about everything he says, insulting him in a loving way so he is unaware of the put-downs. Kerr wants to set his son (Deering Wells) up with their pretty visitor, the elegant Betty Stockfeld, but he returns with a fiancee of his own, the crude Joan Marion. To top that off, the manor is visited by local cockneys who, refused by the servants to stay in their wing, are invited by Lord Henry to stay in the main guest hall.

It's the mixing of classes in this obvious filming of a stage play with a cast completely unfamiliar to me other than rugged Henry Wilcoxin as one of the lower class visitors, in England all the way from Canada. It's directed to have the cast standing around as if it was just another stage play within the film, so there's very little action and minimal camera movement but the lines are witty and situations quite drolly comical.

Assumptions of the upper class being compiled of brainless snobs and the lower classes with prejudices of their own as crass and tactless. This creates a spark (initially spiky) between Wilcoxin and Stockfeld, and it's obvious where that will go. Unfortunately (depending on the character's point of view), Wells finds out that Kitty has greater potential as a fish wife than a great lady and this spoils too many plans as Bob desires to get out of his engagement. A smart drawing room comedy, perhaps not Noel Coward in quality, but often witty and ironic. It's another classic film of British nobility that "Downton Abbey" can enjoy, glossy and complicated, yet easy to get into and full of fun.