Love Before Breakfast *** (1936, Carole Lombard, Preston Foster, Cesar Romero) – Classic Movie Review 6,756

Carole Lombard, Preston Foster and Cesar Romero star in the frothy 1936 American romantic comedy film Love Before Breakfast.

Director Walter Lang’s 1936 Universal Pictures movie Love Before Breakfast is a frothy enough comedy romance vehicle for Carole Lombard as Kay Colby, a much-courted social butterfly.

Based on Faith Baldwin’s short story Spinster Dinner, first published in International-Cosmopolitan in July 1934, Love Before Breakfast provides no surprises in the screenplay by Herbert Fields, Claude Binyon (uncredited) and Preston Sturges (uncredited), assisted by numerous other Universal Pictures contract writers. But the star’s lightness of touch and Lang’s nimble, pacy handling help to make a dullish script entertaining and bring out the best in the gags that are here.

Lombard’s co-stars Preston Foster and Cesar Romero play Scott Miller and Bill Wadsworth, the romantic rival guys out to get the much-courted Kay.

The film story is by Claude Binyon (uncredited), and the treatment is by Harry Clork, Doris Malloy and Preston Sturges (all uncredited), with additional dialogue by Gertrude Purcell.

Also in the cast are Janet Beecher, Bert Roach, Betty Lawford, Robert Kent, Richard Carle, Joyce Compton, Forrester Harvey, William Arnold, Jimmy Aye, George Beranger, Donald Briggs, Ralph Brooks, Ed Burton, Howard Christie, E E Clive, Nick De Ruiz, Lester Dorr, Edward Earle, Jay Eaton, Earl Eby, Pat Flaherty, Nan Grey, John Dusty King, Harry Lombard, Ralph Malone, Alphonse Martell, Bert Moorhouse, Dennis O’Keefe, Albert Richman, Charles Tannen, Bob Thorn, Sammee Tong, David Tyrell, Ada Mae Vaughn, Theodore von Eltz, and David Worth.

It was shot from 16 December 1935 to 27 January 1936.

Release date: March 9, 1936.

Paramount lent contract star Lombard to Universal in exchange for Margaret Sullavan doing So Red the Rose (1935). Lombard had a lot of clout and was no doubt a tough cookie. She brought technical staff from Paramount, including photographer Ted Tetzlaff and costume designer Travis Banton. She exercised her contractual right to reject scripts she did not like, including those written by Preston Sturges, Claude Binyon, Samuel Hoffenstein, Harry Clork, Doris Malloy and William Conselman, before finally accepting Herbert Fields’s script, which retains work by Claude Binyon, Harry Clork, Doris Malloy and Preston Sturges. With so many makeovers, the script should be sharper and snappier, but maybe there were just too many makeovers. Nothing stops the vivacious Lombard, though, and Romero is especially appealing and amusing too.

It started out with the short story’s title of Spinster Dinner, until somebody came up with the provocative title of Love Before Breakfast. That risqué title sounds like the work of Preston Sturges.

Love Before Breakfast is directed by Walter Lang, runs 70 minutes, is made by by Universal Pictures, is released by Universal Pictures, is written by Herbert Fields, Claude Binyon (story, uncredited), Harry Clork, Doris Malloy and Preston Sturges (treatment, all uncredited), with additional dialogue by Gertrude Purcell, is shot in black and white by Ted Tetzlaff, is produced by Edmund Grainger, is scored by Franz Waxman and Arthur Morton, and is designed by Albert S D’Agostino.

The cast

The cast are Carole Lombard as Kay Colby, Preston Foster as Scott Miller, Cesar Romero as Bill Wadsworth, Janet Beecher as Mrs  Colby, Betty Lawford as Countess Campanella, Richard Carle as Brinkerhoff, Forrester Harvey as chief steward, Joyce Compton as Mary Lee, Bert Roach as Party Host, Diana Gibson as the secretary, John Rogers as Dickson, Donald Briggs as Stuart Farnum, George Beranger as Charles, Jack Mower as Doorman, Alphonse Martell as Headwaiter at Dubin’s, Dennis O’Keefe as College Boy, Ada Mae Vaughn as College Girl, Theodore von Eltz as Clerk, E.E. Clive as Yacht Captain, Edward Earle as Quartermaster, Betty Lawford, Robert Kent, William Arnold, Jimmy Aye, Donald Briggs, Ralph Brooks, Ed Burton, Howard Christie, Nick De Ruiz, Lester Dorr, Jay Eaton, Earl Eby, Pat Flaherty, Nan Grey, John Dusty King, Harry Lombard, Ralph Malone, Bert Moorhouse, Albert Richman, Charles Tannen, Bob Thorn, Sammee Tong, David Tyrell, and David Worth.

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Carole Lombard’s 40 sound feature films

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,756

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