Touches You

Load of rubbish!!

Crappy film

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

When big city folk invade the New England town of Carvel for a big game, STG Janet Gaynor ends up on a sudden date with BTB Robert Taylor and after a night of champagne, ends up in front of a JIP. It's a definite case of WTH the next morning when they wake up in his car with a marriage license sitting between them. This Carvel is no relation to the home of Andy Hardy in the series which began the following year at MGM, but like some omen (bad or good), Lewis Stone is cast here as Taylor's very serious father. He's a doctor who works at a Boston clinic, and is involved with the snooty and selfish Binnie Barnes who agrees to go away for six months to avoid the scandal while Taylor and Gaynor pretend to be on their honeymoon and attempting to make their marriage work.Comedy erupts on Taylor's yacht as Gaynor deals with sea sickness, even though she's ordered the most magnificent of foods she feels are typical high society cuisine. But once they settle into their marriage, Gaynor's feelings become clear even though Barnes' sudden return from her trip means nights alone as he neglects her and the clinic (especially a young patient who adores him) and Barnes simply hangs up the phone when Gaynor desperately tries to get ahold of him. "Uncle Henry" Charley Grapewin is dapper here as the well dressed head of the clinic who has no faith in Taylor's future as a top doctor, thinking him a fool and warning Stone that he may not have a long future if his frivolous behavior continues.This is at its most entertaining during the first half, although at over 100 minutes, it does tend to drag a bit. At times, Gaynor's small own girl is totally like Esther Blodgett during the early scenes, even though she adds some glamour along the way covering provincial innocence that Barnes considers non-threatening. But classic Hollywood always gave the underdog the man, and while Taylor may seem at home in fancy nightclubs (the one in Carvel seems way out of place) and on yachts, he's certainly not going to find happiness with the selfish Binnie no matter how much she tries to manipulate him. It's no surprise to discover that "A Star is Born's" William Wellman directed this, and it would be Gaynor's next role which brought her screen immortality.Joining Taylor, Gaynor, Barnes and Stone are James Stewart as Gaynor's small town admirer (really given nothing to do), Nella Walker as Taylor's kindly society matron mother (who sees through Barnes and obviously would prefer Gaynor), as well as Frank Craven and Elizabeth Patterson as Gaynor's parents and Andy Devine as their son-in-law whose seemingly giant baby pelts everybody with rice pudding and potatoes. It's typical MGM light romantic fare where the praises of home and family explodes off the screen, city people are presented as pretentious and short-sighted to the rest of the world, and the sweet country folk are praised as only as Louis B. Mayer could demand them to be.

Robert Taylor as a romantic leading man is just as much at home with comedy as he is with melodrama, war films and westerns. Janet Gaynor is superb and it's interesting to note that Jean Harlow was the first choice, because that would have given this picture an entirely different flavor. And here's an interesting bit of trivia: there are more than a few connections to MGM's popular Andy Hardy. The small town that Gaynor's character comes from is called Carvel. The stage play that served as the basis for the Hardy series set the action in a fictitious Idaho town called Carvel, but in most of the Andy Hardy movies, the location is much more generalized and is basically Carvel, USA. But in this film, it is clearly established that Carvel is in the east. Road signs during one of the scenes indicate that Carvel is 97 miles from Boston.Janet Gaynor would re-team with director William Wellman for A Star Is Born. Meanwhile, MGM would remake this film in 1953, with musical scenes, starring Ann Blyth and Farley Granger.

An interesting film with a playful seduction, which it does everything to avoid throughout, between a rich, young Boston doctor (Robert Taylor) from an old money family who's out carousing around in his convertible roadster after the "Big" Harvard-Yale game and by chance picks up a dissatisfied "small town girl" (Janet Gaynor) who's out aimlessly walking the streets in her little town. The socio-economic strata between old money wealth and idyllic small town middle class America (Andy Devine and James Stewart) is bridged by a love (you can't help but think it's his position and money she's after, though the film tries in just about every scene to make you believe it's real). After a few drinks at a nearby roadhouse, they stumble upon a justice of the peace in the middle of the night and (from Taylor's perspective) just for the heck of it, get married, a marriage that he must maintain for six months in light of his position in Boston society, which we see snippets of, the best one being a gala dance in Boston after they've been married for five months or so, and Taylor's original fiancé (Binnie Barnes), makes her move to reclaim him . Taylor is probably the best part in the film, though the story could have been sharper.

Because of the stars, Janet Gaynor and Robert Taylor, this pretty insignificant film rises to greater heights--despite its silly premise. Playboy Taylor is drunk and marries Gaynor. Of course once they come to their senses, they realize it was a mistake. However, they agree to wait 6 months before seeking a divorce. And, being a formulaic piece, you just KNOW how it will end up by the end of the picture. BUT, it's the journey there that is both entertaining and charming and is well worth a look. Also well worth a look is Jimmy Stewart in a supporting role as "Elmer". It's such an early effort that the studio simply doesn't know what to do with him, so he just kind of wanders about until the closing credits roll!