Give Her a Ring: A Snappy, If Forgettable, Office Romp

Is it worth the watch?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s British comedies that move at the speed of a caffeinated squirrel, then Give Her a Ring might hit the spot. It’s light, it’s fluffy, and it doesn’t ask you to think too hard about anything, which is a blessing on a rainy Tuesday.

However, if you need a plot that actually makes sense or characters that feel like real human beings rather than sketches, you’ll probably want to skip this one. It’s got that specific kind of frantic energy that makes you feel like you’re being hit in the face with a bouquet of plastic flowers.

Notes from the switchboard

The whole premise hinges on a telephone operator falling for her boss, which I suppose was the height of office scandal back then. Clifford Mollison plays the boss with a kind of baffled intensity that’s almost endearing, in a “I’m not sure how I got here” sort of way.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Give Her a Ring (1934) through its definitive frames.

There’s a scene about halfway through involving the office switchboard that just goes on forever. I swear the wires were tangling in real-time. It felt less like a romantic setup and more like a lesson in how not to manage a telecommunications hub.

The little things

• The pacing is erratic. One minute they’re singing, the next they’re panicking about a phone call.
• The Diamond Brothers show up and I’m still not entirely sure what their job was supposed to be.
• I spotted a young Stewart Granger in the background. It’s funny seeing him before he became the big star he was later.
• The set design looks like it was held together by paperclips and sheer optimism.

Watching this made me think of Paid to Love, mostly because both films seem to think that a bit of rapid-fire dialogue is a substitute for an actual character arc. Sometimes it works! Sometimes you just want to reach into the screen and tell them to calm down.

There’s this one bit where someone runs across the room and trips over a rug, and the camera lingers on it for three seconds too long. It wasn't even meant to be a joke, but I couldn't help but laugh. It’s those little, messy moments that make the whole thing feel alive, even if the movie itself is just okay.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly great comedy. But it’s got a pulse. ☎️