An Englishman gambles his own personal valet on a poker game against an American millionaire and loses. The poor chap is made to travel to the U.S. with his new owners, sorry, I mean employers.
I think one can't help to make a distinction between the first half-hour and the remainder of this film. That initial part of it is very remarkable in its comicity; that comicity is not sustained, not in the same intensity anyway, afterwards. We, as viewers, are left in the following situation: if we find the situation of a servant being treated as something he is not - something of a higher value in the social order - comical, we are, in a way, being complicitous in the kind of prejudice and social organization which the film purports to denounce. Therefore, we are forced to take the film seriously, only allowing ourselves to find certain accessory elements comical. (The preceding considerations only give the directions for an analysis which should be developed further.)
This is the 7th entry in critic Dale Thomajan's top ten list for 1935.
Rating: 56
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