Tonight's Movie: The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937)

THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY is a scrumptious romantic comedy starring three of MGM's biggest stars of the '30s: William Powell, Robert Montgomery, and Joan Crawford.

Powell and Crawford play Charles and Fay, a pair of happy jewel thieves mixing it up with London high society in hopes of scoring a magnificent set of pearls. Fay, however, finds her taste for a life of crime waning, especially after she realizes that handsome Lord Arthur Dilling (Montgomery) has fallen in love with her. Lord Dilling is willing to give up his womanizing ways if Fay will have him for a lifetime. Can Fay give up her penchant for thievery?

Movies don't get much better than watching Powell and Montgomery trading witticisms; they're two of the smoothest, coolest actors ever. They're not only funny and divinely elegant -- yes, as you can tell, I really like them (grin) -- they also each managed to bring a tear to the eye at different points in the film.

I'll confess that Crawford has always headed my least favorite actress list (well, maybe Marlene Dietrich has her beat); however, I'm finally at the point where I've wanted to see a few of her movies simply because of the other actors involved. I actually think she did a good job in this; she wasn't as hard-edged and overly made up as she tended to be in her later films.

The stellar supporting cast includes Frank Morgan, Nigel Bruce, Jessie Ralph, Melville Cooper, Sara Haden, Aileen Pringle, and Benita Hume. This was one of Hume's last films; she married Ronald Colman in 1938, and after his death two decades later, she married George Sanders.

THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY was previously filmed in 1929 with Norma Shearer, Basil Rathbone, and George Barraud in the Crawford, Montgomery, and Powell roles.

The movie was directed by Richard Boleslawski as well as the uncredited Dorothy Arnzer and George Fitzmaurice. It runs 98 minutes.

THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY can be seen on video and on cable on TCM. (March 2014 Update: This movie is now available on DVD from the Warner Archive.)

The trailer can be seen here.

A most entertaining film, which I'll definitely be enjoying again in the future.