This has to be one of the most contrived movies I have ever watched. It just seems way too "set-up" to be anything approaching real (even Hollywood's sense of what "real" is).
If that isn't enough, despite being made in 1936, by which time there were more modern approaches to movie making, this film seems much older...perhaps from the 1930-1933 time period.
In fact, there is only one good thing I have to say about this film -- there's quite a bit of real outdoor photography, and it's quite good, particularly during winter in the mountains. Unfortunately, the portion of the film inside the lodge (most of the movie) seems staged...in fact it has that feeling of a stilted stage play.
The two leads are fine actors -- Melvyn Douglas and Mary Astor. But neither could save this dead fish, and in fact, their performances here are -- in my view -- perhaps the worst of their careers. During the first part of the film, the two take an instant and intense dislike of each other, but it's so excessive that I actually found it annoying. It was very difficult to not simply turn the film off, but I finally decided to continue watching for the most wrong reason there is to watch a movie -- to see just how lousy it really is. The two not only warm up to each other after a while, but fall in love. But it just seems so totally fake! He had a son, she a daughter, and here the female couple are all the more annoying since they have both become man-haters. Unfortunately, the children remained annoying far longer than the adults.
I am giving this film one of the very lowest ratings I've posted on this site. Stay away! It's poison!
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