The Lady EveBeen dragging my feet to see this and finally asked myself why. Bottom line is, I didn't want to see Barbara Stanwyck being a cold-hearted, ruthless money-grabber. I'll save that for
Double Indemnity, thank you very much. I know she can do it well, but this is supposed to be comedy and I like her too much to see her being a jerk just for laughs. A few minutes of her being onscreen, I breathe a big sigh of relief. She's so dang charming, I know all will turn out all right. There's a lot of jerk behavior, but somehow she makes it endearing and kind of understandable.
I don't expect logic to play a big part in screwball comedy, but I want heart, otherwise it's just people falling all over the place. Endearing Fonda is splattered on the floor more times than I can count, but because I care, I laugh and like him and the movie all the more. There's a deeper theme here of redemption, but for the most part they're playfully splashing about in the shallow end. Delightful.
My apologies 1SO, for not trusting you more and hesitating less.