Ploydsge just watch it!

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 25 May 1938 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York release at the Radio City Music Hall, 11 August 1938. U.S. release: 3 September 1938. 10 reels. 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Flynn's character was based on the real life Ivy Ledbetter Lee, a colorful publicist who died in 1934. In the film he is a press agent who is pursuing an eccentric millionaire, John P. Dillingwell. The millionaire has a grand-daughter. But the grand- daughter is engaged to the press agent's boss!COMMENT: Despite a somewhat talky script, this is an absolutely delightful comedy. Curtiz gets around the excessive talk by directing the whole show at a whirlwind pace. Flynn shows a real flair for comedy and delivers wisecracks and snaps with all the skilled timing of a professional farceur. Curtiz cracks on the pace not only by having all the players deliver their lines 1½ times as fast as normal but by using extremely fast tracking shots, whip pans and such sharp-as-a-tack film editing that if you blink you miss a whole camera set-up. The dizzying tracking shots following the speeding model trains have to be seen to be believed — the tracks must have been laid across a whole sound stage — and the punchy editing in these sequences make them a classic of their kind. (The film is an absolute MUST for model train buffs).The episode with the two trains is re-staged with two speeding taxi-cabs for the film's climax — less effectively because obviously utilizing the process screen though Curtiz tries to minimize the effect of this faking by fast pacing and cutting and some outrageous near-misses as the characters lean out the windows. There's even a Curtiz signature shot in the middle of the film as the shadow of the guard rises on the wall above the staircase in Connolly's mansion.As a publicity agent who "plays hopscotch from one double-cross to another", Flynn is in absolutely marvelous form. His entrance is delayed for a couple of scenes but once on-camera, he creams the rest of the cast — only Connolly is his match. The scene in which he juggles both De Havilland and Russell on the telephone (mostly filmed in one take and ending with a clever 3-way divided screen, the De Havilland and Russell segments of which dissolve to pick up and track in to a close-up of Flynn as the scene ends) had me in hysterics. Flynn's encounters with all the dogs (both Connolly's and De Hav's) are also most amusing, despite some obvious trickery with a speeded- up camera and a fake doggy tail (which Flynn bites). Flynn is in fine shape — that's really him doing all the running and taking those falls and balancing on the window-ledge two flights up — no wonder he didn't want to work with Curtiz again. Charming, debonair, witty, fast-talking, it's hard to imagine anyone else who could've played the role with such ease and effectiveness while fully retaining audience identification and sympathy. Aside from Connolly, the rest of the players are no match for Flynn. Patric Knowles is way out-classed but De Havilland and Russell are in there pitching (Russell can walk fast and talk fast — a good warm-up for His Girl Friday). (Another odd thing is that with its polio references the film foreshadows Russell's Sister Kenny). A great support cast headed by Melville Cooper and Franklin Pangborn and especially Spencer Charters (love him being locked out in the rain — you can catch his forlorn face staring through the glass at the back of a couple of shots). Margaret Hamilton has little to do and Carole Landis is far in the background.Curtiz stages the scenes not only so they play fast but they look attractive and are most skilfully composed. He even cleverly experiments with having the players lean at an angle — which is highly amusing. And he has all the usual Warner Bros. lavishness with sets and hordes of scurrying extras to back up all this pictorial richness.

Richard Burin Four's a Crowd (Michael Curtiz, 1938) is a really fun screwball comedy that pits a newspaper reporter against millionaire Walter Connolly and his daughter, a la It Happened One Night and Libeled Lady. The first 15 minutes are blisteringly funny. Journo Rosalind Russell schemes to get editor-turned-PR-man Errol Flynn to return to his ailing paper, which the managing director (Patric Knowles) is trying to close down. Flynn agrees, and wages war against Connolly, hoping to turn him into the most-hated man in America, so he can repair his reputation via a publicity campaign. After that, the plotting goes a bit awry, spending quite a bit of time in Connolly's country mansion, where Flynn ends up trying to steal butter whilst mollifying heiress De Havilland and being chased by dogs. Well, I said it went a bit awry. Still, while the screenplay hops from one situation to the next without stopping to consider its internal logic, it moves so fast and so funnily you'll probably be swept along. Flynn and Russell are both near peak form, and they make a delightful team.

RamblerReb I just saw this movie last night for the first time and taped it off of TCM as part of the Errol Flynn festival for April, and am I glad I did! Flynn is hilarious as the lovable cad he was born to play, and almost every gag line he has works with his flawless delivery and perfect timing. Flynn also turns out, not surprisingly when one thinks about it, to be a physical comedian on par with (I sh*t you not) Cary Grant. Another commenter notes that de Havilland's role was wasted on her, and I agree, but she still turns in a great performance. I would probably have cast Jean Arthur or even Claudette Colbert (anything to see her in a slinky silk slip again!) in the role, but Olivia has the chops, no doubt. Some folks might not have cared for all the phone conversations, but one in particular (here be spoilers) when Flynn has to make two dates for the same night without them overlapping is hysterical. Also, Flynn's ingenious use of the household butter supply brings forth the chortles.If only the black shoe bastards had let Flynn do what he wanted and make more of these screwball comedies! What a treasure trove they would be!

dougandwin This is certainly a film that has not stood the test of time so when they say "Why don't they make movies like they used to?", I am sure they were not referring to this film. The plot is silly and very hard to really get interested in, and the 90 minutes it runs for is certainly long enough. I know believability should not come into it, but this one really stretches the imagination too far. If we saw the dogs chase Errol Flynn once more, I would have had to turn it off! The role they gave Olivia de Havilland was an insult to her ability, and the same could be said For Rosiland Russell, but there was more meat in her character so it was not as much a travesty. Patric Knowles had about his biggest role, and unfortunately for him, it did not work too well. Some of the character actors in supporting roles were adequate. It proved to me that when partnered with Flynn, Miss de Havilland should have insisted on Adventure or Western scripts.