If You Could Only Cook

Auto titan Jim Buchanan is in a league with Henry Ford but in the dumps over an impending marriage to a cold fiancé and Luke warm reception to his latest models. Disconsolate, he finds himself sharing a park bench with Joan Hawthorne (Jean Arthur) a Depression victim in need of work. Unaware of Buchanan's status she gets him to agree to be a butler to her cook in order to attain employment with a wealthy mobster (Leo Carrillo). Seems they only want married couples. With everyone being less than upfront comic confusion reigns.

If Only You Could Cook is a spry enough comedy with plenty of charm supplied by Herbert Marshall and Jean Arthur ably supported by the abrasive comic turns of mobsters Leo Carrillo and especially Lionel Stander who threatens to steal the picture. Director William Seiter assembles economically, as he sums up Buchanan's dual predicament in under ten minutes before encountering Hawthorne and focusing on the couple for the rest of the picture, the first hint of romance between them a brief harmless interlude with the ruse still playing itself out. By removing extraneous characters and situation he leaves it up to the four leads to carry the pace of this benign comedy in which they more than succeed.