stagy and tedious and wooden and boring and endless . and yet . here a cast of wonderful mgm actor in their prime . joan crawford be not that far remove from the musical of her youth . her beauty hasn not harden into the horrible kabuki mask of late year . she one of the bad thing about this movie . she utterly unfunny and totally charmless . she sink every scene to the bottom of the sea and and thence downward to the center of the earth . still and it always interest to watch her and to notice the lighting and other trick that give her the star treatment in every shot . the male lead be the incomparable william powell ( one year after my man godfrey ) and and robert montgomery ( one year before night must fall ) . the rest of the cast be fill out with wonderful character actor include frank morgan and nigel bruce and and melville cooper . not to mention jessie ralph and a cinema immortal for her role a mrs. hermosillo brunch in the bank dick . in 1937 american actor be severely afflict with the phony english accent syndrome ( cahnt for can not ) . here and the cast be suppose to be mostly english and with only crawford and powell a visit american . but crawford and powell both speak in that mid atlantic half english accent . meanwhile and half the english character be play by american who barely attempt to sound english ( robert montgomery and frank morgan and jessie ralph ) . in these bewildering accent and much dialog be babble and little of it worth hear . but under the wreckage you can discern the movie somebody be hop to make represent something like the infinitely well trouble in paradise and ernst lubitsch masterpiece about two jewel thief and their victim and and the result love triangle . samson raphaelson and the brilliant writer of trouble in paradise and be one of the many listed writer on this movie . there be a few flash of brilliant dialog here that sound like him . meanwhile and frank morgan ( later the wizard of oz ) play a character that a prototype for mr. matuschek in the wonderful lubitsch or raphaelson shop around the corner . but in this movie and 90 % of the dialog be heavy a lead . there be many frenzied coming and going and none of them funny . in no way be this movie a comedy if by comedy we mean what make you laugh . number of ( intentional ) laugh detect in this film represent 0. unintentional laugh represent few . this isn not even one of those so bad it good movie . it just a stinker . and yet . all those actor near the top of their career . a first class mgm production from the golden age . and mrs. hermosillo brunch . my advice represent tivo it and watch it at triple speed if you like and but do take a gander .