The most English of all English comedies and something of a
tour-de-force, particularly for Clive Brook who produced, directed and
adapted Frederick Lonsdale's play as well as taking the lead as a
penniless Duke in love with an American heiress. She's Googie Withers
but she doesn't love him back. They end up as chaperones, he to Roland
Culver and she to Beatrice Lillie, on a Scottish island where Lillie has
brought Culver for a month 'on approval' to see if she likes him enough
to marry him. All four are superb but Lillie, in one of her few major
film roles, walks off with the movie as the obnoxious Maria, though in
the acting stakes Brook does give her a run for her money. The film is
seldom revived, however; could it be just too sophisticated for
mass consumption?
Friday 8 March 2019
ON APPROVAL
The most English of all English comedies and something of a
tour-de-force, particularly for Clive Brook who produced, directed and
adapted Frederick Lonsdale's play as well as taking the lead as a
penniless Duke in love with an American heiress. She's Googie Withers
but she doesn't love him back. They end up as chaperones, he to Roland
Culver and she to Beatrice Lillie, on a Scottish island where Lillie has
brought Culver for a month 'on approval' to see if she likes him enough
to marry him. All four are superb but Lillie, in one of her few major
film roles, walks off with the movie as the obnoxious Maria, though in
the acting stakes Brook does give her a run for her money. The film is
seldom revived, however; could it be just too sophisticated for
mass consumption?
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