Sleeping Car

This doesn't work an any level. As a comedy it's as funny as reading a European Directive on building product design and as a romance, it's as romantic as a PowerPoint presentation on that aforementioned directive. The story is too ridiculous to be any way believable and all the characters are horrible.

It's difficult to enjoy something when the characters are so unlikeable. Madeline Carroll is usually great in her early Gaumont films but not in this. Her character is not someone you would want as a friend or even an acquaintance. She's only 27 but has the personality of a frosty old spinster from a Victorian gothic melodrama. Or rather an 'un-personality' because she's totally lifeless, shallow and characterless.

Ivor Novello was an acclaimed composer and the acknowledged king of musical theatre but he wasn't an actor. That he had staring roles in films is similar to what happens today when we find a famous rock or pop star appearing in modern movies. He's really quite awful!

If she was a passenger on a train which you were a conductor on, she'd be the sort who'd try to get you sacked for inappropriate behaviour if you even smiled at her. I can't envisage anyone being less likely to be attracted to a conductor.

Unbelievably the unlikely pair develop into a sort of 'item.' Normally in these types of things, when two stock characters get together something happens to them. Their characters change, one either becomes a nicer person or maybe one sees the error of their former ways - think Fred and Ginger. These two however stay exactly the same: just as unpleasant and just as mismatched.

Production-wise the film looks classy and is nicely photographed but because it's impossible to engage with, you just want it to end. Often in early 30s pictures the leads are fine but the supporting actors let the whole thing down. It's the opposite problem here - everyone is fine except Madeline Carroll and Ivor Novello.

I first learned of Ivor Novello from Robert Altman's "Gosford Park", wherein Jeremy Northam played him. I think that I may have eventually seen a movie of his before this one, but Anatole Litvak's "Sleeping Car" is the first one that I can fully register.

I have to admit that I don't know what the general vibe was in British comedy flicks of the '30s; when I think of British comedy, Monty Python comes to mind. Anyway, this romcom is an okay way to spend seventy-five minutes, but it's not the sort of movie that you'll remember easily.

Madeleine Carroll is probably best known for Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 movie "The 39 Steps". I seem to recall that Hitch also directed Ivor Novello in something and made a comment about him that sounded homophobic.

Anyway, it's okay, not great.

Ivor Novello is a conductor with a girl at every stop of the Orient Express. When he spots Madeleine Carroll in Vienna, he decides to add her to his collection. Being a good iceberg blonde, she resists. However, when she is given two weeks to get out of France for having too many speeding tickets, she decides to take advantage of a loophole by wedding a Frenchman. Novello gets the job, but insists there be no funny business.

Unfortunately, there isn't that much in the way of funny business in the movie once that takes place, about two-thirds of the way through the movie. Director Anatole Litvak was never noteworthy for his comedies, even if he was a key talent in drama. As his first full English production -- an earlier movie had been co-produced by Gaumont-British -- it seems more of a movie he was assigned to than he wanted to make.

The leads are good, but there isn't much to the matter. Novello seems to have been on the downslide as a movie star; he is billed after Miss Carroll in the credits. Novello would make one more movie the following year and then return to the stage, where he would prosper for many years.

Ivor Novello is the lady's man with multiple girlfriends who finally stumbles across his match. Yet, before everyone lives happily ever after, a lot of complications arise! If you're into 1930s romantic comedy, this will be a good watch. I was drawn to seeing this film specifically to see Laddie Cliff (who played Ivor's workmate). Laddie Cliff died young, and hardly appeared in any films. Yet, he'd been brilliant in other 1930s comedies (on stage and screen) alongside Stanley Lupino. In Sleeping Car (1933), Laddie isn't given much to do... except for in a party scene one hour in (where he gets to do some drunken clowning around). Overall, this film was quite enjoyable, with good performances by all.

If I did not know differently, I would have suspected this was designed for the Chevalier- MacDonald duo under Lubitsch.

The current trio of Novello-Carroll and Litvak shines as gloriously on its own as the former. A brilliant comedy, superbly acted by all concerned, cleverly directed by Litvak, with surprising cinematography and editing delights and a theme song that keeps cropping up delightfully with ironic and satiric effect throughout the production.

Gaston is a conductor on the Orient Express, with a girl in every station, and meets his match with a woman, who must win French citizenship by marrying with a deadline. Some very clever moments and sequences worthy of Lubitsch. It's screwball comedy before its time. One of Novello's best performances, but he is matched at every step by a supportive script, fellow players of the same calibre of performance, and brilliant direction.

A shame this is not available commercially. I viewed a superb DVD rendition from a private collector, timing in at 75 minutes, not the 82 commercially recorded.

If you love 30s comedy, seek this one out. It's a gem!