The Goose and the Gander

I've mentioned in the past how much I tend to enjoy Warner Bros. programmers and B movies from the 1930s. Another good example of that output is The Goose and the Gander.

Kay Francis plays Georgiana Summers, who's vacationing at the sort of beach resort where the well-to-do go for their vacations. Also there is Betty Summers (Genevieve Tobin), who is only related to Georgiana by marriage, in that both of them have been married to Ralph Summers (Ralph Forbes). Georgiana was the first wife, before Betty came into the picture and took Ralph away while Georgiana was doing one of those rich people's vacations in Europe, which would explain why Georgiana hasn't seen Betty before.

Ralph is there as well but pre-occupied with business, so accompanying Betty at the beach is Ralph's brother Arthur. Showing up is Bob McNear (George Brent), who's clearly in the movie to wind up with the lead actress in the final reel and make her look good the rest of the time. But right now he's carrying on a fling with Betsy that seems innocent enough on the surface and which Ralph suspects not a jot.

Georgiana, having seen the interaction between Betty and Bob, upon learing that Betty is the second Mrs. Ralph Summers, hatches a plan to have Ralph catch Betty in flagrante delicto. Bob mentioned in passing to Georgiana that he has to go away on business on the night train, but is really intending to get off that train and head back to the beach to surprise Betty. And since Betty and Bob are each planning to go up to the mountains for some alone time, Georgiana bribes the one service station along that road to come up with a ruse that will force the two of them to spend the night at Georgiana's place in the hills, at which point Ralph will show up. She's gotten the license plate numbers of Betty's and Bob's cars, which is how only those two will wind up at Georgiana's place.

But of course things don't quite work out that way. When Betty takes Ralph to the train station to see him off, Bob follows, and after Ralph leaves, the two of them get in Bob's car, with a guy from the garage coming to pick up Betty's car. Except that he's going to show up late. There's been a couple of jewel thieves at the hotel, Lawrence (John Eldredge) and Connie (Claire Dodd). They need to make a quick getaway, and when they see the keys still in Betty's car (this was the 1930s, after all; nobody would do that today), they steal Betty's car and head off for the mountains.

So Bob and Betty, claiming to be married, show up at Georgiana's place, followed by Lawrence and Connie, and then eventually Ralph and the cops. The thieves still have the jewels on them too, including one of Georgiana's that she didn't notice had been missing. It gets complicated from there.

Never mind the complications, however; The Goose and the Gander is a silly little piece of fluff that works for the most part on the strength of its cast. It's not terribly memorable and will never be considered a great in the careers of any of the cast members, but then that's not what the studio was looking for. They just wanted to keep their stars in the public eye, and a movie like The Goose and the Gander does that perfectly well while entertaining movie goers for an hour and change.

The last I checked The Goose and the Gander has a standalone DVD courtesy of the Warner Archive, but it really another of those movies that really should have been included in one of those four-film TCM-branded box sets Warner Home Video used to put out.