Laughter

Brilliant Donald Ogden Stewart script (his first, aside from one silent credit) about an ex-Follies girl who has snared her ageing millionaire, finds society stifling, and happily plays with the fire of old flames from her Bohemian days. Wittily acute in its insight into Bright Young Thing nihilism, the film anticipates Cukor's marvellous Holiday (also scripted by Stewart) in steering a precarious path between screwball comedy and darker abysses. If D'Arrast isn't quite Cukor, he is at least Lubitsch without the nudges.