She Couldn't Take It (1935) DVD-R

Starring George Raft, Joan Bennett, Walter Connolly, Billie Burke, Lloyd Nolan, Wallace Ford,
James Blakeley, Alan Mowbray, Donald Meek
Directed by Tay Garnett

Print: black/white
Runtime: 77 min.
Genre: comedy
Print Quality: B

When he's shipped off to prison on a tax-evasion charge, millionaire Van Dyke (Walter
Connolly) breathes a sigh of relief: at least he'll be free of his dizzy, spendthrift wife (Billie
Burke) and spoiled-rotten daughter Carol (Joan Bennett). Once behind bars, Van Dyke
strikes up a friendship with amiable reformed bootlegger Ricardi (George Raft). Since
Ricardi is to be sprung first, Van Dyke suggests that the ex-crook take on the task of
"taming" the incorrigible Carol. Unwilling to be stifled by a former jailbird (even a good-
looking one), Carol decides to get even by persuading one of Ricardi's former cohorts, a
shady character named Tex (Lloyd Nolan) to stage a fake kidnapping. Trouble is, Tex
kidnaps the girl for real, obliging Ricardi to race to her rescue — but only after deliberately
breaking every traffic law known to man, so that he'll be pursued by a veritable battalion of
motorcycle cops (this hilarious finale was later re-used in the 1941 Buster Keaton two-
reeler So You Won't Squawk). A heady blend of screwball comedy and crime melodrama,
She Couldn't Take It is one of the fastest and funniest films of 1935.