Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thirty Day Princess (1934)

Oy. One star. My knitting project helped me to survive the movie. I'm not sure I could survive seeing this again, even though I own it.

What to say? A rich business man visiting the tiny country of Taronia befriends the king and learns that the country is much in need of money. He brings Princess Catterina (Sylvia Sydney) back with him to help interest Americans in the plight of Taronia so that they will buy bonds to fund improvements in the country. Sadly, Princess Catterina comes down with the mumps right after arriving. Is the money-raising scheme doomed to end before it has even begun? No! The business man has the brilliant idea to find a look-alike, a "thirty day princess" to play the part until the real princess can get back out of bed. Nancy Lane (also Sylvia Sydney, of course) is discovered in an automat stealing food. It turns out she is an out-of-work actress desperate for any job. Nancy's first job as the princess is to seduce the grumpy newspaper man Porter Madison III (Cary Grant), who has been publishing nasty articles about his theory that the Taronian bonds are a scam. What happens next is too easy...

Here it is, the moment when Porter Madison III falls in love with Nancy Lane (in her princess disguise):
He cannot resist her playful tossing of the expensive crystal wine glasses as she makes toast after toast to her ancestors.

After this, the country is in love with the fake princess, Porter Madison III is in love with the princess... all goes along swimmingly until the real princess's dolt of a fiance shows up. Two more men who have become convinced that the Taronian bonds are a scam discover that there is in fact a missing New Yorker who looks a whole lot like the princess, and who better than the princess's silly fiance to help them uncover what is really going on?

Will Porter Madison III still love the princess when she is no longer the princess? Will Taronia get its much needed money? I bet you know the answers.

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