Marion Davies

Gary Cooper

Jean Parker

Katharine Alexander

Ted Healy

Russell Hardie

Henry Wadsworth

Douglass Dumbrille

Willard Robertson

Fuzzy Knight

Sidney Toler

Robert McWade

Marjorie Gateson

Wade Boteler

Walter Long

Donald Mills

Harry Mills

Herbert Mills

John Mills

Sam McDaniel

Francis McDonald

Reginald Barlow

Hattie McDaniel

Clarence Wilson

Franklin Parker

John Larkin

E. Alyn Warren

Etta Moten

Sterling Holloway

Curly Howard

Madame Sul-Te-Wan

Martin Turner

Richard Boleslawski

Lucien Hubbard

Harvey F. Thew

Eve Greene

Zelda Sears

Douglas Shearer

Cedric Gibbons

Frank Sullivan

William Axt

George J. Folsey

Gus Kahn

Edwin B. Willis

Walter Donaldson

A. Arnold Gillespie

Adrian

Robert W. Chambers

Herman J. Mankiewicz

Drama

Romance

Operator 13

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

United States of America

CinemaSerf

Well if you thought that “Batman” had a poor disguise, just wait to you see Marion Davies in this quite entertainingly predictable American Civil War adventure. “Gail” has been recruited by the original Mr. Pinkerton to act as a spy for the Yankees down amongst the Johnny Rebs and so blackens up, sports a washer-woman’s garb and adopts an accent that is supposed to help her pass as a serving wench. Luckily for her, those she is spying upon are not the sharpest bayonets on the gun, and pretty swiftly she has ingratiated herself with their deadly foes but along the way taken a bit of a shine to “Capt. Jack” (Gary Cooper). When she returns for a second bite at this intelligence gathering cherry, only this time looking more like something from a Parisian ballroom, she realises that her enemies are not quite so thick as she’d thought. Can she escape in time? Can she ever be with her true love? Unless you don’t actually know who won this particular conflict then there’s precisely no jeopardy at all here, but along the way there are some daft escapades, a few musical numbers and just enough romance to give Cooper a chance to show he’s not quite as wooden as the picket fences they are shooting from. Davies is game, especially at the start but like most of the rest of the cast here, is rather swimming against a tide of low-budget blandness and some 1930s racist stereotypes. These don’t sit so well nowadays, but watching near century old films with modern day attitudes can often be unrewarding, so it’s best to remember that if you’re going to give this mediocre ninety minutes a go.

English