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Kiss and Make-Up (1934)
10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Love Divided By Two, 28 MÁJUS 2005
Author: lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida
KISS AND MAKE-UP (Paramount, 1934), directed by Harlan Thompson, gives promise as being some sort of domestic comedy about troubled marriage, but in fact is a very silly, virtually plot less comedy dealing about cosmetics. Starring Cary Grant, the story is set in Paris, France, where he plays Maurice LaMarr, a doctor in charge of a modernistic beauty salon in which women come to be made beautiful and glamorous. He is loved by Annie Hensen (Helen Mack), his loyal secretary, however, after encountering Eve (Genevieve Tobin), the wife of Marcel Caron (Edward Everett Horton), whom he has made more beautiful than the rest, he falls madly in love with her. After Marcel divorces his Eve, it leaves her free to marry Maurice, who soon realizes his mistake after he finds that she isn't really beautiful after all. During their honeymoon after Maurice sings a song looking towards the waves at the beach, Eve approaches him in saying, "Kiss me." Getting a full view of a face full of cosmetics, he replies in a frightful way, "No, NO!" As for Annie, who feels she has lost the man she loves, decides to run off and marry Marcel.
With Grant heading the cast, which would be the main purpose in watching this today, if it should ever resurface again after nearly two decades out of the television markets, the film's introductory opening goes at great lengths in not only showcasing the facial clips of the major lead actors and their character roles, but a list of young starlets billed as "The Wampas Baby Stars of 1934" including some now obscure names as Lucille Lund, Jacqueline Wells (both of Universal's "The Black Cat" fame); Jean Gale, Hazel Hayes, Gigi Parrish, and much more. Look fast for future film star Ann Sheridan as one of the models who asks, "Doctor, what is that terrible noise?" in regards to some hammering. The supporting actors who partake in the story are Mona Maris as Countess Rita; Lucien Littlefield as Max Pascal; Toby Wing as Consuelo Claghorne; and Rafael Storm as Rolando.
A Paramount gag comedy that makes little sense, and getting plenty of laughs, includes several key scenes such as where a woman customer comes to the shop to be made beautiful, and the final result coming out completely bald, along with another segment where Grant, under either and appearing very confused and dizzy, driving his automobile as he chases after a taxi that has Annie and Marcel riding down a crowded street. Aside from comedy, for which this movie definitely is, it features two songs, the campy "Cornbeaf and Cabbage - I Love You" (sung by Helen Mack and Edward Everett Horton) and "Love Divided By Two" (sung twice by Cary Grant), by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin, the latter used as the underscore during the opening credits. In spite of Grant's reputation as a debonair leading man of screwball comedies, and a fine actor when it comes to heavy dramatics, he presents himself a fine singer, offering viewers a rare opportunity in hearing Grant vocalizing. Genevieve Tobin, on loan from Warner Brothers, is showcased in the usual manner as a free spirited woman who is far from being loyal to the men who love her; Edward Everett Horton, a very busy character actor this time sporting curly hair, as the jealous ex-husband; and Helen Mack (best known for her performance in RKO's THE SON OF KONG, 1933) satisfactory as the good sensible girl. Grant and Mack would share another movie, the better known comedy of HIS GIRL Friday (Columbia, 1940), with Grant and Rosalind Russell as the leads, and Miss Mack assuming a smaller but notable performance.
KISS AND MAKE UP is harmless fun, enjoyable by those who appreciate this sort of Depression era type of flimsy comedies that throw in anything in order to stretch out the story into a feature length movie of 70 minutes with studio production heads keeping its contract actors such as Grant busy enough to get plenty of exposure. This may not be top-of-the-line Cary Grant material, but no disaster by any means either. It's the sort of offbeat comedy Grant might have thought back regarding his long but successful career in such classics as PENNY SERENADE (1941) and NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) only to ask himself, "Gee, was I really in KISS AND MAKE UP?" He certainly was. Distributed to DVD in 2006, double featured with another Grant comedy, THIRTY DAY PRINCESS (1934). (***)
6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Plot summary of Kiss and Make Up, 9 OKTÓBER 1998
Author: Debbie Dunlap (dwdunlap@erols.com) from USA
Dr. Maurice Lamar is a world famous, egotistical, Parisian plastic surgeon. He prides himself on making women slaves to their new beauty. Maintenance, always maintenance. Overt innuendo abounds that his patients, once transformed by his skilled hand, become his conquests. His affairs he refers to as "lovely episodes."
Enamored of his masterpiece, Madame Caron, they soon ditch her husband and marry. We soon see that "Dr. Frankenstein" has married his monster. The moral of the story is that Dr. Lamar discovers that it's no fun to love (Kiss) a woman,when that same woman has become obsessed with her looks, figure and Makeup to the exclusion of all else. Beauty, truly, is in the eye of the beholder.
5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Underratedly wacky comedy, 12 DECEMBER 2006
Author: robb_772 from United States
An underrated picture of veritable wackiness, KISS AND MAKE UP is a forerunner to the classic screwball comedies of the late-thirties and early-forties. The storyline of a progressive plastic surgeon (Cary Grant) who becomes involved with his greatest creation (Genevieve Tobin) has a great FRANKENSTEIN-esquire aura that contains some surprisingly dark overtones for a film comedy of this era – a darkness which is present, but not really explored. The film is benefited greatly by Cary Grant, who gets an early chance to display his grand prowess at farce, which is one of the many qualities that inevitably made him a huge Hollywood star. The rest of the cast is also rounded out acceptably, with Tobin, Helen Mack, and Edward Everett Horton all turning in fine work.
On the downside, the film is extremely episodic, which is not inherently a problem in many cases, but here it prevents the picture from gelling into the knockabout farce it intended to be. Also somewhat detrimental is director Harlan Thompson's approach to the material, which often lacks energy or pizazz; make no mistake, Thompson's work is perfectly acceptable, but I could not help but imagine how truly dynamic the film could have been with Howard Hawks or (later) Peter Bogdanovich in the director's chair. Thompson earns major points for the frantic final chase scene, however, which concludes the film with a thunderous, side-splitting, wig-ripping bang! The movie as a whole is solidly enjoyable, but this terrific end sequence alone raises it's rating by at least a notch or two.
5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
For Gosh sakes, it's a silly movie, yes, but it's also a pre-code funfest, 27 NOVEMBER 2006
Author: barrymn1 from United States
maybe I'm a fool for silly Depression comedies, but even though "Kiss And Make-Up" is a very minor comedy, and not particularly well written, it does have most of the elements needed for people who love pre-code Depression films to enjoy it.
Everybody knows that Cary Grant's Paramount films were generally weak, and that he was nowhere close to establishing his screen personality during these early years.
I had never seen this film before, and I quite enjoyed it. But, jeez, gang, you haven't lived until you've heard Cary Grant, Helen Mack and Edward Everett Horton attempt to belt out the songs! Absolutely incredible. Some of the worst examples of singing in a film from a major studio.
You will enjoy it too....if you sit back and not expect a "Citizen Kane"-quality screenplay!
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Eye candy in occasionally great set design, 14 AUGUSZTUS 2007
Author: manuel-pestalozzi from Zurich, Switzerland
I liked this movie more than I had expected. It is a light comedy that kept me entertained throughout. At one moment we see an American couple going to a traditional Italian restaurant (chequered tablecloths, vines overhead and all) ordering corned beef and cabbage. As if this weren't enough, they break out in song: I love - cooorned beef and cabbage! It's disarmingly silly. Dark haired lead actress Helen Mack is cute and funny, a kind of an early Holly Hunter.
Kiss and Make-Up delivers mainly eye candy. At the center of its story is a beauty parlor in Paris which is also a gym and a clinic with the general aim to improve the physical appearance of the female. Cary Grant is the owner and boss of the outfit and supposed to be a kind of a health guru who helps nature along with creams and ointments etc. which he also markets through radio programs and books (a kind of Dr Lovell?).
A great many beautiful girls and bare legs are on display, and the whole set up of the parlor is just as good and elegant as one designed by famous set designer Cedric Gibbons for the later made, more famous movie The Women. Also very notable is some of the set design during the middle part of the movie which takes place in a Mediterranean holiday resort. It is clearly inspired by the Italian version of Art Deco, with curved walls and furniture, circular windows, slender railings and discreet floor patterns. The hotel suite of the couple played by Grant and Genevieve Tobin features a kind of a gallery on very slender chromium pillars in front of a huge window which leads to a big terrace with a view of a historical Italian town on a sea or a lake shore. It's just great to imagine those smart people sitting in a Hollywood bungalow leafing through the latest issues of Italian architectural magazines like Casabella or Domus.
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