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Howard's Transatlantic is the point of departure, thus Edmund Lowe back gambling between continents. The cardsharp all at sea in the second-class deck, his partner (Claire Trevor) wields an empty lighter to beg a flame, "an actress, despite what the critics think." The passengers have been warned against swindlers so the pair feel like "two good mixers with no ingredients," first-class clods are too rich to resist all the same, particularly the oil baron who enjoys a prank or two (Eugene Pallette). Others aboard the S.S. Olympus include the ship's detective (Ford Sterling), the top-hatted souse (Herbert Mundin), and the lost son (Tom Brown) in the clutches of the kleptomaniac socialite (Adrienne Ames). Stolen necklace and familial reunion comprise the gambit, "those thousand-to-one shots sometimes work." Between Trouble in Paradise and The Lady Eve, a keen caper polished by Allan Dwan's spirited camera. The staircase separating the classes has a barrier easily stepped over, all the better to fleece upper-crust ninnies who set loose fake mice to liven up their own parties. The gambler dispenses questionable advice on dames ("like the measles—annoying but curable") and finds himself struggling to resist the ardent embrace of one in a locked cabin, movie love is funny like that. (Trevor has her own clutch to disentangle on the dance floor: "Look, if you really must wrestle, let's go down to the gymnasium.") Aspirins to replace pearls within a hollow stick, "the real kick comes from stealing," cf. Slightly Scarlet. A close-up of the watch on a wrist uncorking a champagne bottle is characteristic of the limpid storytelling, it all closes like Lubitsch in the back of a taxi. "And I thought this crossing was gonna be dull!" With Jed Prouty, Billy Bevan, and David Torrence. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |