Ladies Should Listen is a 1934 American comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Cary Grant, Edward Everett Horton, Frances Drake and Nydia Westman.

Ladies Should Listen
Directed byFrank Tuttle
Written byClaude Binyon
Guy Bolton
Alfred Savoir (play)
StarringCary Grant
Frances Drake
Edward Everett Horton
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • August 10, 1934 (1934-08-10)
Running time
62 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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Switchboard operator Anna Mirelle falls in love with businessman Julian De Lussac, whom she has come to know only over the phone. When she discovers that De Lussac's current girlfriend Marguerite is part of a scheme to swindle him out of an option on a nitrate mine concession in Chile that he had bought, she devises a plot to save him and expose the con artist, Marguerite's husband Ramon Cintos.

De Lussac's friend Paul Vernet, who is in love with Susie Flamberg, is in a jealous rage because Susie has fallen in love with De Lussac. Susie has recruited her millionaire father to force De Lussac to marry her. De Lussac leaves Marguerite to be with Anna.

Cast

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Lobby card for Ladies Should Listen with Frances Drake and Cary Grant

Reception

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Original release poster

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent wrote: "Aside from its theme, the Paramount offering has little to recommend it. There are a few brief moments when the spectator entertains some hope that the picture is getting into the farce stride, but the promise is not kept; the film sags painfully. It resorts to a number of dull and more than faintly reminiscent situations, and the dialogue sparkles but seldom."[1]

Wolfe Kaufman of Variety wrote that Grant was "brutally miscast" but Rob Wagner of Script wrote that he was "particularly pleased" with Grant, comparing him to Clark Gable in It Happened One Night with his ability to "surprise everyone with his delightful flair for light comedy."[2]

References

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  1. ^ Nugent, Frank S. (1934-07-28). "The Screen: Defense of Snooping". The New York Times. p. 16.
  2. ^ Deschner 1973, pp. 76–77.

Sources

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  • Deschner, Donald (1973). The Complete Films of Cary Grant. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0376-9.
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