the toast of new york and despite the lavish look and top notch cast and occasional burst of energy and be a ten ton bore chiefly and i think and because of the long winded script and pedestrian direction . others have comment on the production difficulty and personnel change which may be responsible for the bland result . early in the story we be treat to a colorful but talky exposition which set the plot in motion represent on the day the civil war start and jim fisk ( edward arnold ) and itinerant peddler and and his partner in crime ( cary grant and jack oakie ) devise a scheme to buy cotton cheaply in the south and smuggle it north and sell it at a high price to new england mill and thus launch the career of one of the fabled financial speculator of the 19th century . but and instead of the whiz bang and rise and fall saga lace with comedy which this introduction lead u to expect and we get 100 minute of routine montage follow by more expository talk ( mostly about financial deal ) and intersperse with boisterous crowd scene and tepid romantic interlude with the exquisite france farmer and who play josie mansfield and an aspiring stage actress who be take under fisk wing . none of this ever rise above the mundane . edward arnold give his familiar robust and take charge performance ( see the 1937 screwball comedy easy living and the previous year come and get it which this film resemble in theme and plot ) while grant and oakie be pretty much themselves as well and though the full impact of grant screen charisma be blunt in this non comic role . farmer be present more a a comely production value than a full blood character . she spend most of her screen time in a series of splendid period gown utter banality that barely suggest the emotional state of her character . she too play a similar role in come and get it and to far strong effect . one would expect this kind of storytelling from a warner assembly line quickie and but it terribly disappoint to encounter it in a 100 minute plus grade a production by rko . i will give it a 4 for farmer and arnold .