Very much a filmed stage play – and what a dated, "terribly black" (to quote one of the characters) stage play it is, redolent with talk about staying too long in the bath and the delights of having a room of one's own – all couched in stage English, "Anyone for tennis?" slang. Although seemingly unaware that a movie set is not akin to the stage at the Paladium, the players battle valiantly with Archie Mayo's dull, unimaginative and relentlessly routine direction. Photography is soft and film editing, merely functional. In fact, let's not mix words. This gab-fest of banal dialogue is one of the worst movies of all time. True, it doesn't open too badly and there is a nice scene with Olivia de Havilland in an artist's studio, but the large roster of players never let up on the yakkity-yak-yak for a single second until finally the ear can stand this excruciating torment no longer and one is forced to flee the cinema for the comparative quiet of the jack-hammers, trolley-buses and streetcars outside. Would you believe this incredibly bad picture has been resurrected and is now available on a Warner Archive DVD?
Review of Call It a Day
Call It a Day
(1937)
Sad to find Olivia de Havilland in this dreary talk-fest
20 November 2013
Warning: Spoilers