CommentsXp Best movie ever!

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

blanche-2 Robert Montgomery is helping a free-thinking artist, played by Ann Harding, write "Biography of a Bachelor Girl," a 1935 film.Harding plays a famous artist, Marion Forsythe, who's been around (as bluntly as it could be said after the code went into effect), and Montgomery is Richard Kurt, a magazine editor, who wants her to write her biography. She has painted the portraits and heaven knows what else of some of the most famous people in the world.Marion agrees, but an old beau of hers, Bunny (Edward Everett Horton) shows up and tries to discourage her from publishing her story. He is a chapter, and he's running for the Senate and presently engaged to the daughter of an influential publisher. This could ruin him.Nice story with a fine performance by Harding, and a departure from the films of hers I've seen. She is usually a very serious, proper woman. Here she is flirtatious, comfortable, and disarming. Every man she meets succumbs to her gentle charm. This includes Kurt, whose name she never remembers and who is becoming increasingly frustrated, particularly when she begins to second-guess the biography.Edward Everett Horton is very funny as Bunny (whom she doesn't remember when she first meets him), and Montgomery is good as Kurt. He, like Melvin Douglas and some other actors, was much better than his material and really didn't have a chance to show what he could do until, at his insistence, he did "Night Must Fall." Later on, he became a successful director.Worth seeing for Harding's performance.

kidboots Ann Harding was like a rainbow in the early sound days - she was a Broadway star who came to Hollywood and just wowed everyone with her unique talent, not to mention her silvery blonde hair and her sultry honeyed voice which always seemed to indicate that she would be just as happy having a beer with the boys as residing in the most exclusive penthouse. Unfortunately she had her share of "stinkers", films in which she portrayed women too noble for any mere mortal and with her wicked sense of humor kept on a short leash (ie "Gallant Lady" (1933)) and audiences soon tired of her. Every so often she came up trumps ie "The Lady Consents" (1936) and "Love From a Stranger" (1937) but definitely not this movie taken from the 1932 Broadway play "Biography" which showcased a glowing Ina Claire.It starts out in an interesting "I want to see more" type of way. Marion Forsythe (Harding), a glamorous artist is the woman all America is talking about - her affairs in Europe have become legend. Steely editor Richard Kurt (Robert Montgomery) is determined that his magazine will be the one to publish her scandalous biography - if he can convince her to. Meanwhile, her first "beau from Knoxville" is now a jittery would be Senator, Leander Nolan (Edward Everett Horton) who is eager to see that the biography is never published, fearing it would stymie his political career as well as his coming marriage to Slade (lovely Una Merkel who unfortunately has to keep her usual quick witted personality under a bush for this movie). Behind Kurt's business like persona are memories of a harsh childhood and a resentment toward the rich and flighty of society but Marion soon shows him she is a regular gal!!This is when the movie starts to unravel. Richard takes Marion to his mountain cabin so they can work in peace and they instantly fall afoul of the suspicious locals who look aghast at her "bohemian" ways (all except nice Donald Meek) and they are then invaded by Nolan, Slade and her father. The ending has Nolan confessing to Marion that he doesn't love Slade but has always carried a torch for her, with Marion managing to convince him that Slade is really his ideal match. Apparently the movie had originally been intended to star Marion Davies and I think she would have been great. You couldn't get two stars more dis-similar and I think Ann was just too sincere and "earth bound" to be believable as the frivolous Bohemian who is quick to put her past behind her and settle down with solemn Richard.

MartinHafer Robert Montgomery is an editor for a magazine and he has convinced the owner to finance a scheme. Montgomery wants to convince a bohemian artist (Ann Harding) to write her supposedly scandalous autobiography to boost the magazine's sales. She is unsure about this but Montgomery is able to convince her. However, another man (Edward Everett Horton) has approached Harding and wants her to keep her life story to herself. That's because many years ago, Horton has dated Harding. Nothing scandalous ever came of it (which isn't surprising since Horton is involved) but Horton is afraid if he's even mentioned that it will hurt his chances in an upcoming senate race. Then, Horton's future father-in-law, a very rich and influential man, comes to beg her to keep Horton out of the story. But what is Harding to do...she doesn't want to hurt Montgomery (especially since she's falling in love with him) but she did promise to expose her life--warts and all.Choosing Harding was a good decision as in the Pre-Code era (which just ended 1934) she was perhaps the most consistently amoral lady in films. I am NOT talking about her personal life but the characters she played--they were VERY much like the lady she played here--though who exactly she is is only implied in "Biography of a Bachelor Girl". Horton was also very good--playing his usual effete and dull lover. As for Montgomery, he was fine but it was funny that politically the guy he played was the exact opposite of him in real life. His character is a crusader and a bit of a socialist--while in real life he was a very conservative Republican.Overall, this is a pretty good but not great film. It is enjoyable but perhaps a bit overlong--as there are a few flat portions and the film could have used a bit more energy. Still, the actors fine job and the film is quite enjoyable fun.

marcslope She's nearly forgotten today, but Ann Harding was a true cinema aristocrat in the '30s, a movie star who didn't look like one (she wore practically no makeup) but was lovely all the same. She didn't act like one, either. Here, she's a free- thinking artist (referred to by other characters as "Bohemian," and it's clearly an insult) whose projected tell-all autobio is going to put an old flame's political career in jeopardy, and she's so obviously more intelligent than any of her co- players that you can't take your eyes off her. Calm, ladylike, and vaguely amused by her surroundings, she's a lot like her contemporary Irene Dunne, but less forced. The movie, from a smart S.N. Behrman stage comedy, is a civilized affair where characters bat around words like "propinquity" without flinching and the slowish pacing feels right. Perfect it's not, particularly in the male casting: Robert Montgomery, as her perpetually dissatisfied editor, doesn't stint on the character's unlikability, which leaves one rooting only halfheartedly for their romance to alight. And Edward Everett Horton, as her compromised ex-beau, isn't believable for a moment, being so obviously... Edward Everett Horton. On the other hand, Edward Arnold, the screen's best Evil Plutocrat of the '30s, is here a quiet, sympathetic spurned beau, and completely charming. It's a pleasant journey back to a time where the general public was more sophisticated, though without Ms. Harding's presence, it wouldn't add up to nearly as much.