The enforcement of the Production Code encouraged romantic farces to avoid excess amorous hanky-panky, but a sly story and an adept cast could still make one think that the censor had taken a vacation. The almost absurdly complex storyline of The Goose and the Gander (1935) throws a group of urbane, misbehaving characters into a mountain cabin and lets the misunderstandings fly. Incensed to learn that her ex-husband Ralph (Ralph Forbes) is being two-timed by his new wife Betty (Genevieve Tobin), clever Georgiana (Kay Francis) schemes to get him back by arranging an 'accidental' meeting at her aunt's place in the woods. She tricks Betty and her illicit lover Bob (George Brent) into staying the night, just as Ralph is set to arrive. But things go crazy when Georgiana's scheme also brings a pair of jewel thieves (John Eldredge and Claire Dodd) into the picture. With everybody having something to hide, nobody can accuse anybody else; the false assumptions and deceptions become further tangled when a yokel police chief named Winkelsteinberger becomes understandably suspicious of the whole setup. In the middle of all this, Georgiana and Bob fall in love. Reviewers were impressed by the number of comical plot complications that solo screenwriter Charles Kenyon shoehorned into the film's fast and funny 65-minute running time. It's one of the glamorous Kay Francis's best star vehicles and also a top title for the prolific director Alfred E. Green, who directed four other movies the same year.

By Glenn Erickson