Tockinit not horrible nor great

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

marcslope Those describing this as an early screwball comedy are telling only half the story--it's also a romantic drama, and, more surprisingly, an existential meditation. The theme is, as noted, quite reminiscent of "Holiday" and the later "The Philadelphia Story"--love among the privileged, with interlopers from the less privileged, and the ability or lack thereof to have a sense of humor in high society. But it's quite sad, too -- Glenn Anders' character meets a sorry end, and that ruins Diane Ellis's life. What's really moving is watching Nancy Carroll, never more radiant, having to choose between security and her true self, and her interaction with Fredric March, unusually loose and spontaneous; their scene in the cab actually moved me to tears, both for its content and their playing of it. This is how it's done, folks. For a screwball prototype it has unusual depth of feeling. Add to that sumptuous Deco trimmings, technical prowess that belie its Astoria Studios origins, and some exciting location New York filming. Hard to catch a copy of this one, but it's worth the search.

drednm I watched LAUGHTER, a 1930 film starring Nancy Carroll and Fredric March. Many comments and reviews state this film as a forerunner of the 30s screwball comedy. Yes there were some screwball elements, such as the silly sequence when the stars, caught in the rain, break into a house and on bear rugs while their clothes dry. There's also a terrific scene when March is playing piano when the butler (Leonard Carey) tries to correct him. They end up playing duets! There's also a nice party scene where Eric Blore shows up in an angel costume. Another standout scene is when the daughter (Diane Ellis) starts to jazz dance and is joined by Carroll while Frank Morgan sourly looks on.Still, I don't see this film as a comedy, let alone a screwball comedy. Carroll (she's very good) plays a former show girl who marries Morgan for his money. His daughter is only a little younger than Carroll. The daughter is a little wild; Carroll is a lot bored. She has everything in her life but "laughter." When she takes up with March, we know the marriage is doomed. So does everyone else.Morgan's character hasn't an ounce of humor in him. There's also a tragic starving artist type (Glenn Anders) who gets involved with Ellis. It's with this character that any shred of comedy drains from the picture as doom settles over the storyline.This is still a very good film with solid work from its stars.

calvinnme ... or make a wise decision concerning your future for that matter. The life of ex-chorus girl Peggy (Nancy Carroll) now socialite wife to public utilities king C. Morton Gibson (Frank Morgan) seems to be an object lesson in this fact. Peggy is already a millionaire's wife by the time the film opens, so we don't see any of her past life, just the human remnants of it. First there's Ralph, an overwrought starving artist who is obsessed with memories of Peggy but whom Peggy never apparently loved. Next there's Paul Lockridge (Fredric March), starving musician, whom Peggy did love but was overseas at the time she made the decision to marry Gibson, and thus could not plead his case.Peggy doesn't have to worry about being hungry anymore, in fact she doesn't have to worry about anything in her new life. However, her husband treats her like a cross between a bird in a gilded cage and a welfare case, always talking about her "unfortunate past" and scrutinizing her every unexplained absence. Neither is he a particularly passionate fellow - accumulating more and more cash is his real passion. The lack of joy in Peggy's life comes to the surface when Paul returns from Europe to win her back. His only asset - laughter, the joy of life lived experience by experience. Add to this a chance meeting of Peggy's unstable old suitor, Ralph, with Peggy's new stepdaughter, Marjorie, that turns romantic and complications abound.This is a rather understated film, nothing is particularly laugh-out-loud funny or horribly suspenseful and melodramatic save for a couple of short scenes in each case. Thus the film's success largely rests on the acting of the performers, which is quite good. Since this film was made in 1930, many might think it is about the desperate decisions and trade-offs people had to make to keep eating during those times, but it really predates the depression.This is a good one for fans of Nancy Carroll, who plays her understated role very well - that of a decent woman whose profession of chorus girl guarantees not only that she has just a few good years to make a decision on the only profession that could come afterwards for such women in the 1920's - marrying well, but that everyone automatically doubts her character because of her profession.

cocoanut_grove "Laughter" is a glorious romantic comedy with a terrific cast including that great man of the screen, Fredric March. It concerns a young woman who has married for stability and wealth, but can't forget the love of her life, played by the delicious Mr March. It was made at Paramount's Long Island studios, and some scenes were shot on location in New York, giving the movie a different "look" to many others of the period. Some people think of this movie as the first "Screwball" comedy. "Laughter" was Frank Morgan's first talkie and the last movie for Diane Ellis who plays his daughter. She died on her honeymoon in December 1930.