It's Love I'm After (1937)

It is incredible that It's Love I'm After is not better known. Not only is it a great movie but it has a big name cast including Bette Davis (My favorite actress), Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland. The film is directed Archie Mayo who the year earlier had directed Bette Davis and Leslie Howard in The Petrified Forest (which is very well rembered by film buffs for being the film that made Humphery Bogart a star). That movie however was a serious drama, while It's Love I'm After is a screwball comedy. This was brought about because Leslie Howard despite only getting serious movie roles wanted to play a more comedic part and although producer Hal Wallis was worried about this, he eventually reluctantly gave Leslie Howard a comedic role (which was this film).

Finding a leading lady proved somewhat difficult. Leslie Howard wanted a talented comic stage actress. The first two considered for the role were Gertrude Lawrence and Ina Claire. Gertrude Lawrence even meet with Archie Mayo to discuss the film. Archie Mayo was happy with her though Hal Wallis wasn't. After seeing her in the film Men Are Not Gods, Leslie Howard came to the conclusion that her greatness on the stage did not transfer over to film. Many other actresses were tried out, until Hal Wallis came up with the idea of casting Bette Davis. Bette was originally very reluctant to take the role. She had been working a lot lately and wanted a vacation. She also felt that Olivia de Havilland had a better role than she would have. To convince Bette Davis to be in the film Hal Wallis, told her the change of pace would be good for her career (she had been doing mostly dramatic pictures lately) and he replaced the originally planned cinematographer, James Van Trees, with Tony Gaudio, one of Bette's favorite cinematographers.

This movie centers around Shakespearean actor Basil Underwood (played by Leslie Howard). Basil and his co-star Joyce Arden (played by Bette Davis) are in love with each other, but can't stop bickering. After much fighting the two finally diced to put it behind them and get married as soon as possible. However Harry Grant Jr. (played by Patrick Knowles), the son of a man who helped Basil out when he was down on his luck, comes get revenge on Basil. Harry's finance, Marcia West (played by Oliva de Havilland) has seen Basil perform in plays and has fallen for him. Basil and Harry come to the conclusion that Basil could visit her families house and act like such a jerk that Marcia would begin to hate him. He views this as a way to renew himself before getting married. However Joyce does not see it this way and is upset about their wedding plans being delayed. On top of that everything Basil does just seems to make Marcia fall more in love with him.

This is an absolutely hilarious film, full of laugh out loud moments. This is due both to a great script by Casey Robinson (based off a play by Maurice Hanline) and amazing on screen chemistry between the cast. In fact just everything in this movie works great. Despite this film not being well known this is one of the classic screwball comedies of the 1930's.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1791/It-s-Love-I-m-After/articles.html