Tonight's Movie: The Princess Comes Across (1936)

Carole Lombard was one of the most delightful stars of Hollywood's Golden Era. She lit up the screen with her effervescent personality and was equally adept with both comedy and drama. Lombard appeared in some of Hollywood's greatest comedies, including MY MAN GODFREY and TO BE OR NOT TO BE, before her tragic death in a plane crash while on a war bonds tour in 1942.

THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS is an excellent showcase for Lombard's talent. She plays Swedish Princess Olga, who is traveling by ocean liner to America and a new career in Hollywood. Princess Olga, it turns out, is not exactly as she seems, as band leader King Mantell (Fred MacMurray) quickly discovers.

Lombard and MacMurray made several films together and have excellent chemistry in this film, which mixes screwball comedy and a murder mystery, with a little concertina music thrown in on the side. The supporting cast includes reliable comedy actors Sig Ruman, Mischa Auer, and William Frawley. The movie, set entirely on a very attractive ocean liner, breezes by in a little over an hour and 15 minutes.

THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS is available as part of a recently released DVD set of six Lombard movies, as well as on VHS.

Update: THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS is now also available as a single-title DVD release in the Universal Vault Series.

2021 Update: This film will be released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in April 2021 as part of the Carole Lombard Collection II. My review of the Blu-ray is here.