Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Best movie ever!

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

After having a bad week I decided to try get back into movie viewing. Taking a look at BBC iPlayer,I found a sweet-sounding RKO title about to leave the site,which led to me meeting the vivacious lady.The plot:Going to pick up his partying cousin Keith, botany professor Peter Morgan, Jr. catches a glimpse of nightclub dancer Francey. After knowing each other for just one day,the couple get married. Returning to his upper-class family home,Peter finds Francey to receive a less than warm reception. View on the film:Gliding across the screen, Ginger Rogers gives a bubbly performance as Francey,who is given a smooth Screwball Comedy sass in the snappy dialogue by Rogers. Causing months of delay just four days into shooting, (and Donald Crisp and Fay Bainter being replaced by the very good Charles Coburn and Beulah Bondi.) James Stewart (who got the role thanks to his girlfriend Rogers) gives a breezy performance as Peter Morgan,with Stewart's real-life romance with Rogers coming across in the comedic playful interplay between the couple.Encouraging the care-free atmosphere, director George Stevens & cinematographer Robert De Grasse keep things stylishly glossy,with elegant whip-pans going behind the closed doors of Francey's and Morgan's romance. Playing to the differences in class between the upper-crust Morgan's and the rough & tumble Francey, the screenplay by Ernest Pagano/I.A.R. Wylie/Anne Morrison Chapin and P.J. Wolfson spins easy-going Screwball Comedy one liners with a sweet threading of the romance between Morgan and the vivacious lady.

I mostly enjoyed this golden-era Hollywood comedy, directed by George Stevens and starring Ginger Rogers and James Stewart. They play the star-crossed lovers, she the sassy street-smart singer, he the wealthy aspiring university don, who marry almost the night they meet but who have to then break the news to his crusty old college principal father and apparently meek, ailing mother.That's pretty much the whole plot folks but for 90 entertaining minutes, we get to see Stewart and Rogers play out a series of scenes as they seek to consummate their marriage, bat away a snobbish old girl-friend of Stewart's and of course win over ma and pa in the process.There are several amusing scenes, including one where Stewart tries to encourage down a folding bed from its wall in Rogers' sorority-room, a doozy of a cat-fight between Rogers and her rival, played by Frances Mercer and when Rogers and her free-spirited former boyfriend, Stewart's cousin, played by James Ellison entertainingly win the old mother (Beulah Bondi) round and incidentally discover the truth about her supposed heart condition.At the climax, both Rogers and Bondi surprisingly seem to strike a feminist note by leaving their men, but of course this is 30's Hollywood and they're both brought to heel rather easily by their men for the expected happy ending. It also seems that Rogers can't walk past any man without attracting leery wolf-whistles. I especially didn't enjoy either the stereotypical treatment of the two black characters, naturally all subservient and cringing, one a housemaid, the other a train porter, with poor Hattie McDaniels having to roll her eyes to the heavens for comic-effect in time-dishonoured "Mammy" fashion.Both the main stars are in good form, Rogers a winning combination of love-struck and feisty, Stewart bookish but amorous. Charles Coburn as the domineering dad seems too old to be Stewart's father but Bondi, Mercer and Ellison are all better in their supporting roles. I've read that Rogers and Stewart were actually dating at the time of the shoot and the frisson between them certainly appears to show.So, with some caveats on the treatment of certain of the characters this was a rollicking, fast-moving comedy, if not quite in the top-tier of those of this era I've seen.

This is a real favorite of mine. We get to see a young and un-Astaire'd Ginger Rogers film. She doesn't get all the credit though. A stellar cast with jimmy Stewart and Charles Coburn round it out.An Associate Professor goes to NY to find and bring his cousin back home. He finds him in a Dance Club and he refuses to come until the lead girl dancer/singer marries him. He decides to hide from his cousin but it doesn't work out. The Singer immediately has a connection with his cousin and they get married the same day. Now, they both have to go home and tell his overbearing Professor of the University father that they are married. It won't be an easy task.I've never been a big dance/musical fan so it was a real treat to see this early Ginger Rogers comedy. It was one of the first I saw of hers and it still remains one of my favorites. She's very sweet and appealing when she meets Jimmy Stewart but when they get back to his small home town, she has to deal with a girl that "thinks-she's-his-girlfriend". After this, the real Ginger Rogers spunkiness comes out. She's a pistol in this one. There is some dancing in this but it's pretty minimal. Watch Charles Coburn play the stodgy father of Jimmy Stewart. He never falters in these roles and this one is no different. Jimmy Stewart is his usual shy and clumsy self and rarely misses in films he was in. Again, this one is no different.On a side note...towards the end in the train scene, watch for Willie Best as the train porter. He barely says a word but he doesn't have to to make you laugh. For a small part he really does get the most of it. Such a funny moment it had to be mentioned.Just a sweet funny comedy all the way around. Not a bad word to say about this one.

Vivacious Lady (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Romantic-comedy from George Stevens has a Professor (James Stewart) marrying a a nightclub singer (Ginger Rogers) but their love starts to fall apart when he takes her home and can't get the nerve to tell his father (Charles Coburn). I found the film to be quite romantic due to the two leads but the comedy area left me a tad bit cold. There's one great scene where Rogers gets into a slap fight, which is real funny but other than this scene there weren't any laughs to be found for me. Rogers and Stewart are wonderful together and the supporting cast does a fine job as well but it just needed a tad bit more.