Going Highbrow

Next up is another of those Warner Bros. B movies that I recorded in part because I'm always up for Warner's B movies and in part because of the cast. It being at the top of the list of movies I've watched off my DVR but haven't done a post on yet, the movie in question is Going Highbrow.

The movie starts off with an establishing shot of one of those old transatlantic luxury liners on its way back from Europe. The press interview a young Frenchwoman, until an American worms her way into the press conference. That woman is Cora Upshaw (ZaSu Pitts), who is interested in getting interviewed because she and her husband have recently made it in the business world. They're from the midwest, out in Kansas, and it's the sort of place where high society doesn't think of anybody coming from. While in Europe, the Upshaws purchased several pieces of fine are. Cora's husband Matt (Guy Kibbee), however, isn't all that interested in the trappings of wealth, as we can see from his giving his European dress clothing to one of the ship's stewards.

Meanwhile, in New York, we meet Harley Marsh (Ross Alexander). He comes from a family that used to be rich, with his mother (Nella Walker) having inherited an estate when her husband died. However, the Marshes have lost most of their cash on demand thanks to poor investing -- the movie having been released in 1935, there is still a depression on. However, they still have a fair bit of property. The manager of the estate, Augie Witherspoon (Edward Everett Horton), reads an article in the newspaper about the Upshaws, and gets an idea: perhaps the Upshaws might be interested in buying some of the paintings that the Marshes still own.

Matt, not really wanting to take part in Cora's playing for high society, and having gotten rid of the "proper" clothing anyway, he goes to a diner across the street from the Waldorf where they're staying. There he meets Sandy Long (June Martel), the waitress out the counter. She obviously doesn't believe Matt is a millionaire. But then Augie suggests one way to get into high society which Cora wants, is for the Marshes to host a debutante party for their daughter. The problem is that they don't have a daughter. That's when Matt decides that asking Sandy if she'll play the part of their daughter.

Matt takes Sandy out to get her the clothes that will make her look like a debutante, and while they're out Harley runs into her. He falls in love with her, but it takes a while for the feeling to become mutual. There are also all sorts of complications.

Going Highbrow is, somewhat surprisingly, one of the weaker of the B movies that I've seen come out of Warner Bros. Granted, I've seen worse from RKO get shown on TCM, and Growing Highbrow isn't exactly bad. But the plot here feels like the writers just bolted together a whole bunch of different plot points that had appeared in a dozen B movies of the previous half-decade.

Still, with the B-movie constellation of stars in the cast, Going Highbrow is still worth a watch.