La moglie bella

This comedy is very different to what you might expect. Its first ten minutes is the little drama that sets the scene but from then on it's a 1920s style drawing room farce, the type of thing you'd expect to hear the phrase: Anyone for tennis?

Surprisingly, once you get used to its theatrical style - necessary for this type of comedy, you might enjoy this. I didn't think I would but despite my initial reservations (were I around then, I'd have been watching Cagney at the Warner Brothers cinemas), I actually found myself laughing at this.

If someone asked you what 1930s movies were like, this type of picture would definitely not be what you'd think about. Today such gentle, gentile plays would play to empty houses but if you put yourself into the mindset of a 1929 theatre goer, you'll find this quite amusing: it's not what these days you'd call funny but it's not without some charm.

Like all of her films, this is another excuse for Irving Thalberg to say to the world: Have I got a hot wife or what! Inexplicably although Miss Shearer is no classic beauty, she somehow exudes 1.21 Gigawatts of sexuality. Don't know how she does it....maybe it's because she was such a good actress!

In this picture, Mrs T after divorcing her unfaithful husband reinvents herself as the most brazen, sex-hungry man eater you've ever seen outside of a Carry On film. The rest of the cast are the usual stock characters for this type of thing but it's made so well (ok, it's a bit creaky because it was made in 1930) it's a cut above the usual. As long as you know what you're going to get: the acting isn't meant to be naturalistic, it's in the style of a farce - it's actually quite entertaining.