Michael_Elliott Kiss and Make-Up (1934) ** (out of 4)Maurice Lamar (Cary Grant) is a famous plastic surgeon living in Paris where he works on making women beautiful all day long. His secretary Anne (Helen Mack) is secretly in love with him but the doctor decides to head off with the married Eve (Genevieve Tobin) who he feels is his masterpiece work. Eve's husband Marcel (Edward Everett Horton) ends up striking up a relationship with Anne and soon all four are on a crash course.KISS AND MAKE-UP is without question one of the strangest films from this era of Hollywood. It got into theaters before the Hayes Office started to come down on sexuality and the Pre-Code nature of the film is something that would probably attract people to it. I will admit that the free sexuality running through the first half of the picture was quite good and seeing Grant kiss a married woman isn't something that too many movies did back in the day.With that said, this is without a doubt a pretty bad movie on many levels. It remains slightly entertaining simply because of how weird the thing is. The first twenty-five minutes basically take place in the plastic surgeon office where we see several of the beautiful women as well as some of the ugly ones hoping to look better. Seeing Grant flirt and talk his way through the people was mildly entertaining but there's so much here that happens for no apparent reason including a meeting with an old college friend that never pays off. The blatant sexuality is a plus but things just get stranger.From here we get the weird love story with the two couples basically trading off partners for whatever reason. None of these segment, clocking in around thirty-minutes total, adds up to anything entertaining and in fact it's just downright boring. Even worse if the final five-minutes where it seems director Harlan Thompson was trying to pay homage to the Keystone Kops and it just doesn't work. To date this here was Grant's biggest role and he's fun to watch but there's no question that there's not much else. Mack and Tobin are decent in their roles but but characters are poorly written.KISS AND MAKE-UP is weird enough to where it's worth watching if you're a film buff but there's no doubt that it was Grant's worst picture up to this point in his career. With that said, he does sing a song!

bkoganbing A year before Kiss And Make Up came out from Paramount, Sam Goldwyn produced Roman Scandals for Eddie Cantor in which Cantor sang the song Keep Young And Beautiful. While watching this film, it occurred to me that rather than any of the songs that Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger wrote for this film, Keep Young And Beautiful could have served better as the theme for Kiss And Make Up.Not only that Eddie Cantor should have played the part that Cary Grant did in this film. A few more sight gags and the kind of humor that Cantor did would have served this film better. With only a few establishing shots to make us believe this is Paris in the film, Cary Grant plays a noted French plastic surgeon who has become a celebrity of sorts with his success rate in turning out women who rate being called a 10. He guarantees doubling their rating value. One woman, Genevieve Tobin is pleased with his work, but her husband Edward Everett Horton is not. Finally Cary has a secretary in his office played by Helen Mack who sees him as a human being and not a celebrity beauty queen maker.When MGM's compilation film That's Entertainment was released audiences were treated to a clip from Suzy which came out two years later than Kiss And Make Up and had Cary Grant singing Did I Remember. He sings here some songs that surely have been served better had they been done by Paramount's singing star Bing Crosby. In Suzy Grant did the number for laughs, here someone thought maybe he could be a musical star. Big mistake. In fact Edward Everett Horton and Helen Mack singing an ode to that St. Patrick's Day delicacy Corned Beef And Cabbage was the musical highlight.Not the best Cary Grant film though the wild taxi chase in the end does liven the film up somewhat.

MartinHafer Because KISS AND MAKE-UP was made very early in his career, I guess I can understand why Cary Grant could make such a bad film. But make no mistakes--this is a bad film. While the first 90% isn't great, the finale is truly one of the most wretched scenes in Grant's wonderful career.The film has very unusual casting because Cary is cast as a plastic surgeon and beauty guru of sorts. He is so famous that his practice is making him a fortune, he has a radio show and women adore him. Through all this, he has a secretary who adores him. It's incredibly obvious to the audience and, of course, Cary can't see this--a movie cliché indeed. This potential romance with his nice secretary is nixed when a vain society lady falls for Cary. This lady is considered the ideal beauty and Cary is proud of his creation--the only trouble is that she's still married to Edward Everett Horton. though he is only too happy to give divorce her. Cary finds out why, as his new wife spends every second of the day working on her beauty--taking 4 and a half hours to dress for a dinner, eating lettuce and lean ham, refusing to go into the sun or swim. She's as much fun as an enema and the marriage fizzles almost immediately. At this point, Cary FINALLY realizes that his secretary is the woman for him---but she's about to marry Horton. So in a "madcap" finale, he chases her in a cab through the streets of Paris.As for the finale, it truly stinks. It looks more like a chase scene from a 3 Stooges short--one of their poorer ones at that!! From the film to go from subtle comedy and romance to slapstick was abrupt and unnecessary. In fact, nothing about this ending worked at all and made me cringe. You'll just have to see it for yourself to understand how a sub-par Grant film became one of his worst due to this ending.By the way, if you care, the worst film Cary Grant made during his great career was ONCE UPON A TIME--a film he made during the height of his fame. It's a "heart-warming" story of a cute little kid with a dancing caterpillar--and Cary is the promoter who wants to make them famous. It's so bad that it's actually worth seeing--just to see how bad it is!

manuel-pestalozzi I liked this movie more than I had expected. It is a light comedy that kept me entertained throughout. At one moment we see an American couple going to a traditional Italian restaurant (chequered tablecloths, vines overhead and all) ordering corned beef and cabbage. As if this weren't enough, they break out in song: I love - cooorned beef and cabbage! It's disarmingly silly. Dark haired lead actress Helen Mack is cute and funny, a kind of an early Holly Hunter.Kiss and Make-Up delivers mainly eye candy. At the center of its story is a beauty parlor in Paris which is also a gym and a clinic with the general aim to improve the physical appearance of the female. Cary Grant is the owner and boss of the outfit and supposed to be a kind of a health guru who helps nature along with creams and ointments etc. which he also markets through radio programs and books (a kind of Dr Lovell?).A great many beautiful girls and bare legs are on display, and the whole set up of the parlor is just as good and elegant as one designed by famous set designer Cedric Gibbons for the later made, more famous movie The Women. Also very notable is some of the set design during the middle part of the movie which takes place in a Mediterranean holiday resort. It is clearly inspired by the Italian version of Art Deco, with curved walls and furniture, circular windows, slender railings and discreet floor patterns. The hotel suite of the couple played by Grant and Genevieve Tobin features a kind of a gallery on very slender chromium pillars in front of a huge window which leads to a big terrace with a view of a historical Italian town on a sea or a lake shore. It's just great to imagine those smart people sitting in a Hollywood bungalow leafing through the latest issues of Italian architectural magazines like Casabella or Domus.