It's Love I'm After (1937)

It's Love I'm After (1937), directed by Archie Mayo.

Quick and witty screwball comedy with Leslie Howard and Betty Davis as ham stage actors, and Olivia de Havilland (taking a break from Errol Flynn) as an adoring fan.

Eric Blore has some priceless lines as the devoted and very swishy valet. Spot Bonita Granville in the annoying kid sister role; she made four Nancy Drew pictures in 1938-39, later doing some film noir work I am still waiting to see.

Leslie Howard died in 1943 when his plane was shot down over the ocean. He will always be The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) and Prof Henry Higgins to me. If he had lived he would be remembered as one of the century's great actors and directors.

Warner Archive title, available for rent from ClassicFlix.