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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Hands Across The Table (1935)

Starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Astrid Allwyn, Ruth Donnelly
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A manicurist just managing to scrape by pursues one of her wealthy male customers, only to discover he's as penniless as she is.

In my journey through Carole Lombard's films, this one is I think perhaps the best showcase I've yet seen her in, with equal opportunities for the actress to show her comedic and dramatic skills, and she looks beautiful throughout.  She's also paired quite well with MacMurray, which makes it easy to see why they would co-star again in other productions.  Playing the faux rich man whom her character finds she has to take in, while both pursue richer beaus, MacMurray has several splendid comedic scenes, and his interplay with Lombard is wonderful.  A scene in which he and she call his rich fiancee, with Lombard pretending to be an obnoxious operator is comedy gold.  It's a smart and well-directed picture, with the two leads at the top of their game.

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