Eric266 Most of these reviews mention how Russell was a poor replacement for Loy. I didn't really make that connection as I'm a fan of Russell's from My Girl Friday. She was much better in MGF, I will grant you, but it didn't lessen my enjoyment of Rendezvous just because Loy was not in it.William Powell plays Bill Gordon, a genius puzzle solver, who gets duped into becoming a code breaker for the Army by Russell's Joel Carter when America enters WWI. She is the niece of the Asst Secretary of War and uses her connections to get Gordon placed at a desk in Washington D.C. to keep him near. Its supposed to be cute and romantic, but it comes off as spoiled and cruel. Gordon then goes on to break an important spy message and leads him to a ring of spies operating in town. Powell is amazing as usual. The opening scene where Joel mistakes him for a Russian singer and Gordon plays along is vintage Powell. He had great comedic chops and timing. The code breaking scenes are fantastic as Powell conveys wit, genius, and tension as his character goes through the long hours and countless failures trying to crack the code. As I said, Russell has done better work. Her role is is to act as a ditsy foil to Powell and it doesn't work.The supporting cast is brilliant. While Russell was a the weak link in her first major role, the rest of the cast does great work. Binnie Barnes and The Joker himself, Caesar Romero, as German spies are top notch. Lionel Atwill as Gordon's boss provides a looming presence. With a tighter script and less pratfalls from Russell, this could have been a wonderful spy drama. It seemed they tried too hard to shoehorn in the comedy instead of letting it develop naturally with the plot.If you are fan of Powell's this is a movie that needs to be part of your viewing library. If not, focus on the code breaking scenes and its still a fun ride.

SimonJack "Rendezvous" is a 1935 MGM film that has William Powell doing duty during World War I. The film is a mix of comedy, drama and action with Powell's character uncovering an espionage ring in the nation's capital. The comedy comes by way of his love interest, played perfectly by Rosalind Russell.Powell is Bill Gordon, a former news correspondent. While working in Asia, he filled his dull moments with studying and deciphering codes. He wrote a masterly work on making and breaking codes, and it was published under a pen name – Anson Meredith. Now he's a lieutenant in the Army and just wants to get to France to do his part for Uncle Sam on the front lines. But, through a sudden encounter and romance with Joel Carter (played by Russell), Bill's future is changed.When they first meet, Joel mistakes Bill for a Russian opera singer at an embassy party. In a hilarious scene, Bill plays it to the hilt with her and her facial expressions lead to many laughs. The next day, Bill sees Joel marching in a Woman's Suffrage parade. She's carrying a sign that reads, "I sent my sons to war. I want to vote." Bill asks if she has any grandchildren and she swaps signs with another woman. Some funny fisticuffs ensue when the police try to break up the parade because it doesn't have a permit. Later, Joel goes with Bill to catch his train, and a troop train pulls out while they are kissing. He said his train doesn't leave until the next day.They have lunch and spend the day together. Bill tells Joel about his anonymous authorship of the code book. He doesn't know that she is the niece of the Assistant Secretary of War, John Carter. So, the next day at the train station, Joel and Bill kiss goodbye. But as Bill steps onto the train, an MP delivers new orders. He is to report to the War Department for his new assignment.The rest of the story unfolds with intermixed scenes of espionage, romance and comedy. Binnie Barnes has a major role as Olivia, a German spy. Fine performances are given by a supporting cast that includes Cesar Romero, Lionel Atwill, Samuel Hinds, Henry Stephenson and Charley Grapewin.This film also has some interesting scenes that recall early 20th century history. The sign atop the Park Hotel reads, "Your home in Washington, D.C. 500 fireproof rooms." That was a time when hotel and office building fires were quite common. Another scene shows telephone operators "patching through" a long distance call from Washington, D.C. to San Diego. Some seniors will recall the time that it used to take just to get a long distance through.Most of Hollywood's leading men of sound motion pictures starred in war-related films in the first half of the 20th century. Some were action or battle films, others were in espionage or underground movies, some were in wartime dramas on the home front or in England, and some were in comedies. They were with the troops on the ground, at sea and in the air.William Powell was in just a few such films in his career. He is probably best remembered for his role as Doc in the 1955 smash hit, "Mr. Roberts." That comedy and drama was set during World War II and is unique in that its top four roles were played by actors who had been or were to become leading actors in Hollywood. Besides Powell, it starred James Cagney, Henry Fonda and Jack Lemmon.Powell was a consummate actor who played a variety of roles. He is most known and regarded for his comedies, and for some comedy-crime roles he played. Most notable was his Nick Charles role with Myrna Loy in the Thin Man series of movies in the 1930s and 1940s. Three of his comedies are among the funniest and best comedies of all time. Besides this fine film, I recommend those for any serious collector's library. They are, "Libeled Lady" of 1936, "Double Wedding" of 1937, and "Love Crazy" of 1941.

JohnHowardReid I was going to give Rosalind Russell a thorough going over for her ridiculously heavy-handed performance in this espionage comedy-drama, but I see that the role was actually designed for Myrna Loy and that Russell was assigned at the very last moment when Loy went on strike. Anyway, Roz manages to throw the film way off balance. Incompetent direction doesn't help either, though once again, it's only Russell's scenes (of which there are many) that are incompetently handled. At some stage Sam Wood was brought into the film, but if he handled any of Russell's scenes he obviously had no more success in inducing her to tone down and stop trying to steal the movie from Powell. As for Powell, he doesn't bother to compete with Russell's aggressive scene-stealing. The rest of the movie is pretty suspenseful with some good performances from Binnie Barnes and Samuel S. Hinds. Production values are extremely lavish, even by MGM's over-the-top standards.

MartinHafer During WWII, this film was remade as PACIFIC RENDEZVOUS---a perfectly dreadful film due to one glaringly bad performance. While RENDEZVOUS is certainly better than this remake, it, too, suffers from a glaringly bad performance.In both films, you have almost two films within a film. The first is a rather exciting yarn about cryptography and an effort to smash a German wartime spy ring. The second involves an unnecessary plot with the leading character falling in love with a "kooky" girlfriend who always seems to be blundering into trouble. This combination of a serious spy story and a fluff piece just didn't work. It was very bad in this film--it was even worse in PACIFIC RENDEZVOUS. What made it bad here wasn't just the character, but that they did this with Rosalind Russell--a good actress who deserved so much better. Well, now that I think about it, leading man William Powell certainly deserved better as well. Think about it Powell and Russell and yet they still managed to make a mediocre film!