Going Highbrow: A chaotic mess or just plain silly?

Is this thing worth your time?

If you like old-school comedies where everyone is yelling or looking confused, you might find a bit of charm here. If you hate watching people make the absolute worst decisions possible for an hour, skip it. It’s loud, it’s frantic, and frankly, it feels like it was put together in a bit of a rush.

The whole premise of hiring a 'fake daughter' to impress high-society folks is exactly as thin as it sounds. You can almost see the writers sweating over how to keep the charade going. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Mickey's Mix-Up, though with way more stiff collars and fancy dining rooms.

The Party That Never Ends

The middle chunk of the movie is just the party. It drags. There's a moment where a character walks across the room and it feels like they’re walking for three full days. I found myself staring at the wallpaper patterns because the dialogue just wasn't holding my attention anymore. 🙄

Edward Everett Horton is doing his usual thing, which is fine, but you can tell he’s carrying the weight of the entire script on his back. There’s a scene where he tries to maintain his composure while someone is clearly about to spill the beans, and his eyes just look so tired. It felt real, in a weird way. Like he was checking his watch.

• The dialogue is snappy, but sometimes it snaps back and hits you in the face.
• The fake daughter plot is pure absurdity.
• Some of the side characters seem like they wandered in from a completely different set.

I can’t help but compare the general vibe to something like Smart Money, though obviously in a totally different genre. There’s that same sense of people playing a game they don't quite understand. It’s not profound, and it’s definitely not high art. But it’s got a weird, frantic pulse to it that I kinda didn't mind.

Final thoughts

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly great movie by most standards. But if you’re in the mood for something that doesn't ask you to think too hard, it’ll do. The ending feels tacked on, like they just realized they had to finish the movie by five o'clock. It’s messy, but at least it isn't boring. Most of the time, anyway.