Service de Luxe
Service de Luxe is a 1938 American comedy film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Constance Bennett, Vincent Price (in his film debut) and Charles Ruggles.[1]
| Service de Luxe | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Rowland V. Lee |
| Produced by | Edmund Grainger |
| Written by | Vera Caspary Bruce Manning Gertrude Purcell Leonard Spigelgass |
| Starring | Constance Bennett Vincent Price Charles Ruggles Helen Broderick |
| Music by | Charles Henderson |
| Cinematography | George Robinson |
| Edited by | Ted J. Kent |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
Helen Murphy, alias Dorothy Madison number 1 (Constance Bennett), runs a very successful agency, "Dorothy Madison Services," for wealthy people who need someone to run their lives. A huge staff is up 24 hours a day to attend to all sorts of problems. Her alter ego, Pearl, alias Dorothy Madison 2 (Helen Broderick), is there to assist Murphy, who dreams of finding a man who is able to run his own life.
Robert Wade (Vincent Price), a young inventor from Albany, New York, leaves behind him five old aunts who tried to run his life. He comes to town to develop his tractor model. Murphy and Wade meet on the boat. Murphy is there on orders from Wade's uncle (Lionel Belmore), who is a client of Madison Services, but she picks the wrong man to send back home, while she meets Wade and is instantly fascinated by him, although he thinks she's not a career girl, as well as being rather helpless.
When she discovers that the man she met on the boat was Wade, she has some problems how to manage this relationship. Her client Mr. Robinson (Charles Ruggles) is willing to finance Wade's tractor model and arranges a laboratory for him. Unfortunately, his daughter Audrey (Joy Hodges) wants to marry Wade. While her father has adapted a kitchen in his library to be taught how to cook by Bibenko (Mischa Auer), Audrey tries to be in the basement laboratory with Wade. When it comes out that Bibenko is a Russian prince, Audrey finds he's the better husband-to-be. Wade marries Murphy, who leaves behind her career-girl life to become a wife.
Cast
- Constance Bennett as Helen Murphy
- Vincent Price as Robert Wade
- Charles Ruggles as Mr. Robinson
- Helen Broderick as Pearl
- Mischa Auer as Bibenko
- Joy Hodges as Audrey Robinson
- Frances Robinson as Secretary
- Halliwell Hobbes as Butler
- Raymond Parker as Bellhop
- Frank Coghlan Jr. as Bellhop
- Lawrence Grant as Voroshinsky
- Nina Gilbert as Mrs. Devereaux
- Crauford Kent as Mr. Devereaux
- Lionel Belmore as Robert Wade (uncle)
- Chester Clute as Bridegroom
- Ben Hall as Yokel
References
- Kellow p.211
Bibliography
- Kellow, Brian. The Bennetts: An Acting Family. University Press of Kentucky, 2004.