A striking comedy from the period between the world wars.
This film is a light comedy, very good-natured and full of twists, in which the life of a quiet paleontologist at a natural history museum is completely changed after meeting a volcanic and clumsy young woman. He is about to get married, he is waiting for a large donation to the museum from a rich old woman and he is unaware that the young woman is, in fact, the niece and only heir of the donor whom he wants to please, and who he hopes to receive soon. a domesticated leopard to have in your home, as if it were a cat.
Produced and distributed by RKO, it was directed by Howard Hawks, it was such a failure at the time that it was only more than twenty years later, when it premiered on television, that it began to find its audience. Today, it is a great classic of pre-World War II light comedies and was considered culturally significant.
On a more personal note, I can say that I really liked the film and its comedy style, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that I would consider it a cultural landmark, even though I wouldn't deny it the classic label. Let's be quite honest, the film is funny, and it's perfect for family viewing, with its well-mannered humor and without the use of more cheesy jokes, common in our contemporary comedy. The action is so fast, everything happens so quickly that we don't have time to think much. It's not a film to analyze rationally, because it would fall like a house of cards. It's a film to watch with willingness and mental openness to successive jokes.
Cary Grant needs no introduction and, as he has done many plays and comedy work, he is perfectly comfortable with this type of material and the role he has been given. The result of his work is excellent: it will never be one of the defining films of the actor's career, but it is an honorable addition to his filmography and is unmissable for Grant's admirers. Katharine Hepburn, on the other hand, did not have great comedic ability nor had she done significant comedy work before this film. She struggled a lot with the character and with the material received, and this can be seen, at times, in the artificial and somewhat forced way in which she acts. Even so, we cannot give her effort a negative rating.
