Cary Grant and Carole Lombard are more known for their light comedic prowess than for heavy-handed drama, so when IN NAME ONLY comes as a variation of a thousand recycled soap-opera plots complete with a silky-voiced other woman, somehow there's a minor bomb waiting to fizzle. Katharine Hepburn had been slated to play Julie Eden alongside Grant as the lead but her denouncement as "box office poison" clearly had her on the outs of RKO, so while she starred in the Broadway version of THE PHILADEPHIA STORY, Carole Lombard took her place and portrayed the victimized role in a way which has her look somewhat uncomfortable even when sharing scenes with Grant. It doesn't become her (and probably wouldn't have flattered Hepburn at all. Julie Eden as a woman is too lame, really.) The entire production seems somewhat adrift and hasn't dated too well due to the romantic subject matter, but it still retains a certain dignity and honesty that indicates it wasn't trying to be a major hit but a simple movie about two people who meet at the wrong time and the nasty woman in between them.
Review of In Name Only
