Bachelor Bait

Stu Erwin usually played in supporting roles, but here he's given a lead in a comedy with a promising storyline. Unfortunately, his comic shoulders are just not broad enough to carry the load alone. He plays Bill Watts, an ex-employee of the Marriage License Bureau who decides to go into business as a matchmaker. Bill may have a bland exterior, but he has the soul of a romantic and it turns out that he is very good at what he does, thus his business booms. His problems begin when a millionaire shows up at his office (Grady Sutton) looking for a mate. Bill picks out his own secretary (Rochelle Hudson) as a potential wife, but an obnoxious and loud golddigger (Pert Kelton) inserts herself into the situation. From this point forward the story bogs down, not just because of the plot itself, but the gold digger gets tiresome in a hurry. This is the kind of role that could have been handled with skill by someone like Patsy Kelly, but Ms. Kelton's voice and presence soon becomes as irksome as fingernails on a blackboard.

This movie was made shortly after the production code came in, and I think that went a long way in sinking it. Movies were so completely sterilized in 1934 and 1935 that comedies that ventured anywhere near the topics of sex and romance often come across like the musical comedies of 1931 and 1932 that had all of their songs stripped out of them due to the hostility of the public toward movie musicals. Something is just missing.