Smart Woman was one of Gregory La Cava’s first soundie comedies, and one of Mary Astor’s very few leading comic roles. Astor was a competent comedienne, but by the time sound was introduced her aura and style were practically fixed in stone: serious, refined, intelligent, ethereally beautiful, and dignified — so dignified that pratfalls wereContinue reading “Smart Woman (1931)”
Monthly Archives: August 2022
She Married Her Boss (1935)
Gregory La Cava was an ingenious, supremely gifted director of comedies. He was universally respected and admired, but like his peer Leo McCarey, he has never been accorded auteur status because he didn’t have the power (and probably the desire) to write his own screenplays like Preston Sturges, or to choose scripts that could beContinue reading “She Married Her Boss (1935)”