A NEW COMEDY FILM.

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 144, 21 June 1938, Page 6

A NEW COMEDY FILM.

"Bluebeard's Eighth Wife."

The new tradition of comedy whicl has been building by Paramount Pic tures is continued in "Bluebeard: Eighth Wife," which comes to thi Regent Theatre at the end of the weels The film started with considerable ad vantages, of course; it had Gar: Cooper, it had Claudette Colbert, .1 had the material , altered around n film fashion to bring it up to date, o: a state play that rocked, its tens o thousands of theatregoers, and it nac Ernst Lubitsch. The snap of the famous Lubitsch direction is wha noves this film up a grade, shows jrdinary events In a fresh light, anc slaces new emphasis on comedy. Tn< use of the trouser-legs of a pyjam; suit, lor instance, first to establish th( ■haracter of Michael Brandon, the nulti-millionaire who is playing arounc in the Riviera while conducting bij leals by transatlantic telephone, ther 0 bring him together with Nicole d£ Giselle, who is going to be (thougr he doesn't know it) Bluebeards Eighth Wife, finally to establish Michael in the heart of the family oj le Loiselle,.is ah opening which pro nises great things and they ofter ome. For in the strange jcourtsmt vhieh follows,' the wooing of the bride ifter the wedding, the efforts of tn< iride to obtain a divorce, there are iome moments of pure comedy as gooc is anything that has been seen on the creen. The episode of the familj Jhotograph, when Nicolle first learns ibout Elsie and the. rest, the dinnei >arty at which onions are the saving 'race, the moment in the shop where he question of the pyjama sale is re erred to ever higher authoritieshey remain in the memory. Anc vhile the ending' is. pure farce, it - sprightly and engaging farce, *nd . 1 s quite in keeping with the rest oi he film that the Marquis de Loiselle should buy a mental home. •_For the ; est Gary Cooper, photographed from !ew aSarshJngles, and evert growng a moustache, has a role that is •ather outside anything else he has lone and as the hard, rapid-thinking usfnessmfn he is undoubtedly goof, f not at h s top form. Claudette Col ,ert? that reliable and, mtelllgen ctress, is as reliable and intelligent as Iver a little too quick even for her millionaire husbancf. The story, which "replete with bad temper, with ruse md with counter-ruse, is well worked ut and the end is not to be foreseen -at least not often. And the support, nl cast which includes such, noted Medians as Edward EverettHorton ind Herman Bing, with DavidjNiven n a humorous role, ; and Warren ivman as a poetic pugilist, carries its nerit in its names., The remarkable hing is that Mr. Lubitsch showed such in the use of Horton. He is, 'erhaps the first director in Ave years vho has been willing to keeo to his &orv %hen the obtuseness of Horton Jaftee for ready-made comedy icenes. —-