Thanks for the memories!

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

In their own wacky way, screwball comedies like "My Man Godfrey," "It Happened One Night" and "The Awful Truth" somehow made sense. The problem with "Hard to Get" is that as much fun as it frequently is, you never believe that the shenanigans could actually happen. Would the head of a major oil company spend most of his time arm-wrestling and playing pingpong with his butler? Or take a forty story ride on a steel girder to meet a young inventor? And would his otherwise intelligent daughter pretend to be her clumsy maid to bewilder that same inventor? Then again, Dick Powell, Olivia de Haviland, Charles Winninger, Melville Cooper and even Penny Singleton (in a terrific sequence as de Haviland's real maid) behave as though the script had a nodding acquaintance with reality. Which makes it surprisingly entertaining.

What would Hollywood have done if "It Happened One Night" hadn't been made? After that, the movies were peppered with heiresses, one of which was Olivia de Havilland in 1938's "Hard to Get" starring Dick Powell, Charles Winninger, Roscoe Jenkins, and Bonita Granville.Margaret (de Havilland), an heiress, runs afoul of gas jockey Bill (Powell) because she doesn't have $3.48 to pay for gas and oil. He then makes her clean some bungalows. Outraged, she complains to her father (Winninger) and demands that he do something. He refuses and tells her to take care of it herself.Margaret returns to the gas station, and, pretending to be the valet's daughter, makes nice, flirts, and goes out with Bill, who proceeds to tell her about a business venture for which he is seeking investors. Margaret then sets out to extract her revenge. And guess what happens along the way.I'm not as enthusiastic about this film as some others on this board. It's totally predictable and, in my opinion, not one of the better screwball comedies, though there are some funny sections, especially toward the end.Olivia de Havilland was absolutely beautiful and excellent as the spoiled heiress, and Dick Powell was delightful, as was his singing of "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" and his entertaining "Sonny Boy," as a Jolson impersonation (blackface and all). Winninger and his friends (Melville Cooper, Thurston Hall) are very funny on the construction site at the end.The cast makes it enjoyable.

Dick Powell works at an old-fashioned auto court (motel with gas station) when Olivia de Havilland stops for gas. When she says she can get the check (for $3.48) to him tomorrow, he doesn't believe her and makes her work it out, in making the beds and cleaning the rooms. She vows to get even. That is the basic premise in this lightweight fun-filled movie. Her father is Charles Winninger (who incidentally made a career of being Judy Garland's father in movies,) is indeed wealthy, but who passes the time wrestling and dueling with his manservant, Melville Cooper (who is excellent as always with his straight-faced delivery.) This subplot of their rivalry is very fun to watch and is reminiscent of Peter Sellers and his manservant fighting it out.Olivia goes to her father to get Dick fired, but, when he refuses and tells her to grow up and handle it herself, she says she'll find a way. Just how you'll have to see for yourself, but I can say Dick's rump must have stung pretty bad.For all those who've seen Olivia in her melodramas, you have to see this one. It's probably her best comedy, and this movie is the one that introduced the song "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" to the world. The ending is a bit awkward somehow, a little forced or manipulated; it didn't come off completely smooth. But, by then you've laughed yourself silly and it shouldn't hinder your enjoyment and true satisfaction of a great film. Can't anyone today make a truly funny (and clean) movie like this one anymore? That's the only thing "hard to get."

A spoiled rich girl wants revenge on the gas station attendant who humiliated her - he wants to sell his idea for auto courts across America; both are about to learn that some things in life are very HARD TO GET.This is a wonderful, hilarious screwball comedy, boasting good performances, genuine laughs & fine production values. Witty & winning, it is a shame it is so obscure today.Dick Powell appears to be having a terrific time as the young go-getter with the big ideas. As eager to please as a puppy dog, he enthusiastically hurls himself into the zany plot permutations. Whether impersonating Jolson singing ‘Sonny Boy,' or introducing the song hit ‘You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby,' Powell is never less than entertaining.Lovely Olivia de Havilland is a pure pleasure to watch as she slowly bends to Powell's winning ways. Considered more of a dramatic actress, her considerable comedic talents are on full display here. The scene where she attempts to serve a fancy dinner while impersonating her maid is a quiet riot.An unusually large cast of supporting players help move the fun right along: cuddly Charles Winninger as Olivia's physical fitness mad dad; Isabel Jeans & Bonita Granville as his insufferably snooty wife & youngest daughter; Melville Cooper as Winninger's long-suffering valet; Allen Jenkins as Powell's dimwitted buddy; Thurston Hall as a banker with a dangerous love of practical joking; Grady Sutton as Olivia's flaccid suitor; and Penny Singleton as a wonderfully unsophisticated servant.Movie mavens will recognize Arthur Housman as a polite inebriate, and Arthur Hoyt, Vera Lewis & Jimmy Conlin as attendees at a flower lovers' banquet, all uncredited.Rear projection screening was the bane of the cinema for years, as its patently fake visuals tended to distract from the action. HARD TO GET, therefore, deserves some credit for its splendidly vertiginous high-rise construction segment, which really does grab hold of the viewer's spine.