Capital Celluloid 2020 – Day 3: Fri Jan 3

Hands Across the Table (Leisen, 1935): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.50pm


This 35mm presentation (which also screens on January 11th) is part of the Carole Lombard season at BFI Southbank. You can find the full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Mitchell Leisen could mount a romantic comedy with the best of them (Easy LivingMidnight), though he seemed to prefer projects with weirdly mixed tones, often forcing screwball comedy on a melodramatic situation, as he did in Arise My LoveRemember the Night, and this 1935 feature. Carole Lombard stars as a gold-digging manicurist; she has her sights set on crippled millionaire Ralph Bellamy, but an impoverished Fred MacMurray enters the picture and complicates her plan. The film seems to be toying with dangerous mutations of emotions, as calculation turns to pity and aggression to love, yet Leisen doesn't seem completely in control of his themes, and the film leaves a queasy sense of incompletion. A compelling oddity.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is an extract.

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