Pretty Good

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

When a movie stars Joel McCrea, you can pretty much guarantee it will be enjoyable...and so I wasn't surprised that I enjoyed this film. It's cute and enjoyable and Miriam Hopkins is quite nice as well.When the film begins, you learn that the heiress Dorothy Hunter is a bit of an enigma. No one knows what she looks like and folks about to meet her are curious what she looks like. However, what they don't realize is that this 'Dorothy Hunter' is a fake...hired by the real one (Hopkins) because she wants to retain her privacy. This has created a problem, however. How will she meet men and how will she handle it when she meets a nice guy? Well, she gets to try this out when Tony (McCrea) enters her life. She CONTINUES to pretend to be someone else and her assistant continues to pretend to be Dorothy. The problem is that Tony finds he's falling for BOTH women!This is a sweet film and the stars do a nice job...almost nice enough to give this one an 8. The script isn't easy to believe but the cast do their best to breath life into it.

Whether or not money can buy happiness (or just rents it) is a question still being pondered millenniums after the appearance of the first gold diggers. Today, having tons of money may get your name in the paper or most likely just pay for a good therapist, but in the depression, if you were lucky enough not to have lost your shirt or skirt in the stock market, you had to wonder if the broke heir or heiress or the dashing young man or sexy chorus girl was after you or your bank roll. Real life heiresses Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke had their prestigious but sometimes lonely lives documented in T.V. movies, even appearing together as pals in the 2001 Doris Duke bio, "Too Rich".Their fictional depression era movie counterpart is introduced as the orphaned daughter of wealthy parents who went down on the Titanic, and to avoid unwanted publicity, she has lived in seclusion all her life. The audience learns early on in this light screwball comedy with dramatic moments that the real heiress (Miriam Hopkins) has switched places with her secretary (Fay Wray) in the hopes of finding a husband who loves her, not her status or bank account. She's actually a very lovely young lady, fun and caring, yet definitely insecure over her ability to attract a man. Along comes handsome Joel McCrea who makes a bee-line for Wray but also enjoys spending time with Hopkins whom he considers a "buddy". Wray goes along for the prank, yet unlike in the badly remade "Bride By Mistake", is always prepared to relinquish her status should the plan backfire.A well-written and complex comedy, this is a film without a real complete conclusion, but that gives the audience the opportunity to determine how they would like the revelation of the truth to come out. Hopkins and McCrea share a nice chemistry and prove that true love does usually start off with the two being more pals than lovers. Wray's character is never really developed beyond just being an agreeable part of the scheme, but Henry Stephenson is excellent as Hopkins' adviser. Droll Reginald Denny and loyal Beryl Mercer round out the supporting cast for a comedy that doesn't answer all the questions about what it takes to be a happy rich person, but then that answer needs to come from the person whose life desire it is to be wealthy.

Though the Academy presented an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of this movie, the story does not make a lot of sense. In order to find a man who loves her for herself instead of her money, Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) switches identities with her secretary. Yet when Tony Travers (Joel McCrea) persists in pursuing the "false" Dorothy Hunter (Fay Wray), the real Dorothy continues to want Tony for herself.Right up to the end, when Tony has finally popped the question to the false Dorothy, the real Dorothy continues to love him. It is only a last-minute switcheroo that causes Tony to end up married to the real Dorothy--and even then she is still disguised as the secretary! Why Tony persists in chasing after the woman whom he thinks is the richest girl in the world is a mystery. Does he really love her? No sign that he does. Does he want her just for her money? This seems to be the case, though even that is never made clear in the movie.The situation is not helped by the performance of Joel McCrea. In some films, such as Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels" and "Palm Beach Story," McCrea's deadpan demeanor actually plays into the humor of the situation, particularly when he plays opposite a talented co-star and comically gifted supporting cast. But in this movie Joel McCray borders on the inert. He comes across as a mere hunk, dense and single-minded in his pursuit of the false Dorothy.

Richest Girl in the World, The (1934) ** (out of 4)Miriam Hopkins plays Dorothy Hunter, the richest girl in the world who also happens to be a recluse. Mrs. Hunter always sends her secretary (Fay Wray) out to pretend to be here. One day at a party Hunter, pretending to be the secretary, meets a man (Joel McCrea) who claims that he could fall in love with a rich woman even if she didn't have money. This RKO comedy was certainly inspired by Barbara Hutton, who at the time really was the richest girl in the world. The built up love story was probably the creation of someone in the RKO front office but the end results are fairly disappointing considering the cast involved. The story itself is the biggest problem as is goes from A to B to C without anything new being done and by the time the film is over you can't help but feel as if you've witness nothing but one cliché after another. The highlight of the film would be a scene where McCrea and Wray are out in a canoe when a jealous Hopkins comes up in a large part to tip them over. This sequence was a very funny one but there aren't too many laughs after it. McCrea and Hopkins made enough films together to be charming and they do that here. The two of them bring their characters to life even though the screenplay doesn't offer them much. Wray is also pretty good in her role but again, the screenplay doesn't give you anything. In the end this is a completely forgettable movie that most people will overlook so unless you're a fan of the stars then it's best to just keep this one in the vault.