Kiss and Make-Up (1934)

In just two years, and with more than a dozen films behind him, Cary Grant was a hit and commanded star status and leads in most of his films. While many of his movies were very good, a few weren't much better than run-of-the mill. "Kiss and Make-Up" is one of those. The title of this movie is a play on words – make-up then being used to refer to women's makeup and cosmetics. Grant is a doctor in this film – a plastic surgeon living in Paris who has built his particular calling into a beauty empire. He will do the usual face-lifting and other surgeries, but much of his professional guidance is in diet, exercise, the use of special beauty products and all sorts of pampering practices for the body. It's a real body-worship plot in his beauty salon. But after he "creates" the perfect woman and she leaves her husband for him, he finds the tables turned. Grant plays Dr. Maurice Lamar who gets a dose of his own medicine. The perfect beauty is Genevieve Tobin as Eve Caron. The husband who liked his wife the way she was before and winds up divorced from here is Marcel Caron, played by Edward Everett Horton. Another principal character is Lamar's secretary-manager, Anne, played by Helen Mack. Lamar eventually comes to his senses and is saved from the hedonistic lifestyle of body-worship. The movie has a car chase and Cary Grant sings. He could carry a tune, but nothing like the noted singing stars. He also plays the piano – a talent he used some in later films and frequently in his personal life. Marcel and Anne have the only good song in the film – they both love their "Corn Beef and Cabbage."With all of the attention to physical beauty and the number of beauties in the salon, this film can soon begin to wear on one. The plot is thin and shallow. It's probably only of interest to die-hard Cary Grant fans.

What starts off as a feature variation on the Eddie Cantor song Keep Young and Beautiful from Roman Scandals quickly turns into My Baby Just Cares For Me as beauty doctor Cary Grant finds out when he breaks up the marriage of client Genevieve Tobin, marries her and learns that life with a glamour girl ain't always so glamorous. Edward Everett Horton is her ex who takes up with Grant's jilted secretary Helen Mack who loved him from afar. Pre-code in every shape and form, this features some deliciously raunchy dialog and plenty of innuendo.At first, you think that the movie is going to be a plug for Max Factor, but then it suddenly switches to an obvious crack at the obsession with beauty and the genuine ridiculousness of the industry that still obsesses today. Ugly old women yearn to look decades younger, those still young prove themselves to be shamefully materialistic and foolish. Not much has changed in 80 years! Grant gets to sing a bit and Tobin spoofs the ridiculousness of vanity with delightful tongue in cheek. Horton as usual is a delightfully funny pompous fool. Mack is noble but nobody's fool yet her pairing with Horton is never convincing. If you pick up on the parody, you'll see past the shallowness and find a handsome romantic comedy with plenty to enjoy.

maybe I'm a fool for silly Depression comedies, but even though "Kiss And Make-Up" is a very minor comedy, and not particularly well written, it does have most of the elements needed for people who love pre-code Depression films to enjoy it.Everybody knows that Cary Grant's Paramount films were generally weak, and that he was nowhere close to establishing his screen personality during these early years.I had never seen this film before, and I quite enjoyed it. But, jeez, gang, you haven't lived until you've heard Cary Grant, Helen Mack and Edward Everett Horton attempt to belt out the songs! Absolutely incredible. Some of the worst examples of singing in a film from a major studio.You will enjoy it too....if you sit back and not expect a "Citizen Kane"-quality screenplay!

Dr. Maurice Lamar is a world famous, egotistical, Parisian plastic surgeon. He prides himself on making women slaves to their new beauty. Maintenance, always maintenance. Overt innuendo abounds that his patients, once transformed by his skilled hand, become his conquests. His affairs he refers to as "lovely episodes."Enamored of his masterpiece, Madame Caron, they soon ditch her husband and marry. We soon see that "Dr. Frankenstein" has married his monster. The moral of the story is that Dr. Lamar discovers that it's no fun to love (Kiss) a woman,when that same woman has become obsessed with her looks, figure and Makeup to the exclusion of all else. Beauty, truly, is in the eye of the beholder.