Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

pronker pronker I give this 8/10 because it was unexpectedly good, in particular in the romance department as Love overtakes two smart people. Watching it primarily for Ball, her expressive face gliding between smugness and dismay as Hodiak foils her neat fraudulent scheme with her first 'mark' to be seen, a greedy person with too much money and not enough sense. She is fun and later in the film, quite touching in her admission of the feelings of heretofore scorned emotion, love. Hodiak is also good, and the plot fairly simple: Hodiak is an 'honest' crook, willing to endure an assured short time in prison to be freed, later to enjoy his fraudulent bonds. I liked the Mardi Gras element and the fact that the train's milieu is pointed out in their little stumbles and cramped quarters. Lloyd Nolan, stolid cop, gets a taste of the high life but doesn't succumb to any more temptations, where in a darker film, he would have - also in a darker film, we would have shootings and stabbings and failed dreams and whatnot. I did not want to see a darker film so this one, which another reviewer has likened to a Lubitsch film, suited well.

HarlowMGM THREE SMART PEOPLE might be considered the low-point of Lucille Ball's career at MGM in the 1940's but it's still a quite good little tale and a rather unique cross between romance and crime drama. Lucy and John Hodiak are elegant con artists who find themselves battling for the same pigeon. There are romantic sparks immediately but a rival is a rival and they each deliberately ruin the other's con. When Lucy learns from old partner Elijah Cook Jr that Hodiak is carrying a hidden a half million in bonds, she ditches Cook and manages to find a spot on the cross-country train Hodiak is on heading toward New Orleans. Lucy is unaware though that Hodiak's traveling partner Lloyd Nolan is a cop escorting him on one last fun fling before Hodiak turns himself in for a prison stretch of at least five years.This smooth pseudo-film noir is surprisingly agreeable. Essentially a three person picture (Ball, Hodiak, and Nolan) the only other part of any length is Cook's who surprisingly billed below both Hugo Haas and Lenore Ulric in roles that are basically bit parts. The movie looks great and it's no surprise Lucy later sought the cinematographer Karl Freund to helm I LOVE LUCY. She's a vision here, particularly in the Mardi Gras segment. The extended New Orleans sequence is the highlight of the film and director Jules Dassin and the production designers do a very fine job of capturing both the unique look of the city and Carnival season, complete with jazz for the background music. TWO SMART PEOPLE is a very enjoyable diversion with a nice performance by Lucy in an atypical role.

bmacv Anyone coming to Jules Dassin's Two Smart People in expectation of the hard-core noir of his Brute Force, The Naked City, Thieves' Highway or Night and the City will have a surprise in store. Here, Dassin betrays his continental roots in fabricating a light if poignant romance between two con-artists. And though the movie has a noir veneer, it's less suggestive of Fritz Lang or Robert Siodmak than of Ernst Lubitch – specifically the Lubitch of Trouble in Paradise, another elegant romance sparked between larcenous lovers. The pairing here is between Lucille Ball, on the lam from a job she pulled in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and John Hodiak, being escorted back from the west coast to finish a stint at Sing Sing by cop Lloyd Nolan. While trying to sabotage one another's swindles, Ball and Hodiak fall in love, and she joins him on his train journey to that castle on the Hudson. Also in play are half a million in bonds which are tucked away in a fancy cookbook (all ortolans and truffles) that Hodiak, a bit of a gourmet, keeps with him for bedside reading. And the wild card is nasty Elisha Cook, Jr., one of Ball's former partners in crime, who wants the bonds for himself.Dassin keeps a delicate balance between the intrigue and the romance, but the romance wins out (and who's complaining). Hodiak takes to the lighter, more debonair style with greater conviction than he does the harder-boiled roles he played in Somewhere in the Night and Desert Fury that same year. Ball, in a role that is neither too broad (like The Fuller Brush Girl or Miss Grant Takes Richmond) nor too melodramatic (like The Big Street), delivers a subtle and winning performance – and she looks smashing.For his finale, Dassin whisks us to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, granting Cook a flamboyant exit. It's a gaudy set-piece crowded with costumed revelers that raises the spirits before they grow subdued at the surprisingly bittersweet ending. If Two Smart People can be counted as part of the noir cycle (and it often is), it's possibly its most effervescent title. If not, who cares? It remains an offbeat delight all its own.

reve-2 For some reason the Maltin book looks for laughs in this film. It is not a comedy. I guess some folks were expecting comedy because of the presence of Lucille Ball. In actuality she plays a con woman who is on the lam from the law in Arkansas. She meets up with John Hodiak, a con man who has struck a deal with New York police authorities and who is being transported back to New York by Lloyd Nolan, a good cop who has become friendly with Hodiak. Nolan agrees to indulge in a fun filled train trip back to New York, which ultimately includes stops in places such as New Orleans (at Mardi Gras time). Hodiak tricks Nolan into entering Mexico, where he intends to remain, outside US jurisdiction. But, Nolan comes up with a neat way to get Hodiak back to the US. Naturally, Ms. Ball just happens to be on the same train and is with the two men at all stops along the way. There's an attempt at a love story between Hodiak and Ball which is pretty lame. Another big mistake was the casting of Elisha Cook Jr. as a former partner of Hodiak's who had been double crossed. He is supposed to be a menacing figure throughout the train trip and during the Mardi Gras scenes in New Orleans. But, there is no way that Cook, with his wimpy look, could ever appear to be a menace, even when he has a gun pointed at someone and tries to talk tough. Nolan, by far, does the best job in this movie. He is believable as a very nice cop who stays one step ahead of Hodiak's plots. As I said before, this movie is not a comedy. Unfortunately, it is also not a particularly good film.