User reviews

Some actors and actresses have generational appeal. Some folks think of Katharine Hepburn as Jo in Little Women, and some think of her as the gray-haired mom in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Joan Bennett, for me, will always be the little blonde Amy from Little Women (the same version, ironically); but for others, she'll always be the middle-aged mother in Father of the Bride. If you want to see her in her younger years, but with her brown hair, check out the funny comedy Girl Trouble.

Joan plays a high society dame who's recently found out she's broke. She needs to rent out her lavish apartment, and due to a misunderstanding, she ends up staying there as the maid! Don Ameche, in town on a big business deal, rents the place and is very disappointed by her level of service. She sleeps in despite his wake-up call request, she ruins breakfast, and misplaces all his clothes. He picks up a piece of burnt toast with his fingertips, and she explains, "I thought you could scrape it the way you like it." The humor in this movie is classic of the silver screen, making jokes about high society, the Depression, and the horror of wearing the wrong tuxedo to a party. But I love old movies, so I was cracking up.

This movie features Billie Burke's funniest performance as a ditzy Spring Byington type. "That gown! Wherever did you get it?" she exclaims at a dinner party to Helene Reynolds. Then she opens her coat and reveals an identical gown. "Don't tell me. I already know!" In the same conversation, Don Ameche is wearing a wrong sized tuxedo and his arm doesn't reach out all the way when he extends his hand in a handshake. Billie shrieks, "Oh, he's lost his hand! Did I tell you, Margaret lost her teeth last week?" It's hilarious. For some silly escapism fun with Joan Bennett fretting about juggling her dual-identity as a rich woman and a housekeeper, check it out.

Joan Bennett is broke, but not so broke she'll marry Alan Dinehart. She's scrubbing her apartment for subletting, when in walks Don Ameche from South America, trying to raise a loan for $2,000,000 for rubber plantations. A conversation with society friend Helene Reynolds raises her ire Miss Reynolds says that it's not that men are only interested in her money and clothes, but they help. When Ameche assumes she's the housemaid, she decides to seduce him,

This looks like it was produced in a hurry, since Ameche loses his accent after a couple of minutes. Instead, the movie is taken up with jokes about rationing, and a sequence in which Ameche winds up wearing Miss Bennett's father's formal suit. Billie Burke is on hand to play one of her delightful featherbrains, and among the ladies, you can spot Dale Evans, Janis Carter, and Vivian Blaine. The rationing jokes haven't aged particularly well, but this romantic comedy proceeds on its inevitable three-act course with some smiles along the way.

"Girl Trouble" is supposed to be a kooky romantic comedy. The trouble is that the kooky portions are annoying and the romance is anything but romantic! It's a shame, as I love films from Hollywood from this era...but i really found myself struggling to care about this one.

June Delaney (Joan Bennett) is a society woman who just found out she's broke. When a South American rubber magnet, Pedro Sullivan (Don Ameche) arrives, she thinks she can pretend to be a maid in order to regain her old lifestyle. So she poses as a maid and soon it all becomes very tedious...and tough to believe or care about.

In films apart from "The Wizard of Oz", Billie Burke plays rich scatterbrained women. Her range was absolutely nil. But this one was much more grating than others because she was so thoughtless. She was supposed to be funny...she wasn't. She was annoying.

As far as the romance goes, it just appeared out of no where near the end of the film. Neither showed any inclination towards the other--the next thing you know they are head over heels in love!

Overall, a failure...and for me to hate an older film, that's very unusual.