MartinHafer Marilyn (Claudette Colbert) meets a nice guy, Charles Gray (Ray Milland) and they fall for each other. What she doesn't know is that this rich member of the British royalty already is engaged...and when he pops the question to her, she rejects him. Her friend, Peter (Fred MacMurray), is a newspaper man and helps her exploit the situation...creating a lounge act for her and billing her as 'The NO Girl'. While she has no singing ability, he insists that this won't be a problem! And, oddly, she becomes quite the sensation.When she takes her show on the road to the UK, a potential problem arises....Charles. When they meet again, they pick up where they left off...and Pete feels left out...which would seem to indicate he wants her to be more than just his business partner. What's next? See the film...and see who she picks.Considering the actors, it's not surprising that the movie works quite well. Charming and well worth seeing.

mukava991 THE GILDED LILY packs a lot of good-natured fun into a standard Paramount assembly line product. Claudette Colbert, perhaps never more perfectly photographed and framed, plays an office worker torn between two handsome young suitors: a brash newspaper reporter (Fred MacMurray) and a cultivated Englishman (Ray Milland, who, unbeknownst to Colbert, is actually a duke traveling in the States under an assumed name to avoid the press). The plot picks up when Colbert discovers Milland's true identity (via MacMurray who by chance is assigned to do a story on him), whereupon emotions take over, spin out of control and create a whole new world of developments, including Colbert's overnight rise to celebrity-by- association, which relocates her from workaday surroundings to nightclub dressing rooms and luxury hotels, from simple lace collars to glittery evening gowns. There is no logical explanation for how she could become so closely involved with Milland, yet know nothing about him other than the fact that he is English and has no job. But we must suspend disbelief so that the plot can develop.The first half is the best, beginning charmingly as Colbert and MacMurray's friendly- flirtatious relationship is established on a bench outside the main branch of the New York Public Library where they meet each Thursday to eat popcorn, chat and watch the world go by. Their dialogue provides all the exposition we will need: he is in love with her, plain and simple; she isn't in love with him, because her vision of love is based on an ideal fantasy which no reality has ever matched. From this introduction we are taken on a lively ride as she is soon swept off her feet by Milland in the surging chaos of a packed subway station. Following is a series of beautifully written scenes, expertly played by Colbert, charting the giddiness of falling madly in love through the descent into despair when that love suddenly appears to be a cruel illusion. The peak occurs when Colbert exquisitely botches a nightclub song-and-dance act intended to launch her as a marketable celebrity. Thereafter the story sags and gets mechanical, contracting into the old "which suitor shall I choose" routine, but momentum resumes toward the end. Even at its lowest points, however, just the beauty of the three main faces in close up is enough to hold interest. It is impossible to judge which of Colbert's many light comedy performances is the finest, but this one would have to be in the top five. MacMurray and Milland are perfectly cast as the opposite love interests. They resemble each other in build, height and hair color, so that even accounting for Milland's accent and slightly more reserved demeanor we can see why it's so difficult for Colbert to choose between them. The resemblance is most pronounced when the men appear together in formal attire.

fedor8 Lame ol' comedy that is as unfunny as it is absurd in plot. I mean, did I miss something?... Colbert gets the WRONG man in the end! She ends up with MacMurray instead of Milland. MacMurray plays a deceitful journalist who'd sell his own mother for a good story, plus he ruins Colbert's romance with Milland out of sheer jealousy - yet he is the one we are supposed to find likable, whereas Milland is supposed to be a snob! This is the only (comedy) film - as far as memory serves me - that has the girl getting the wrong guy. Besides, MacMurray is bland.It was weird seeing a young Milland; I don't know if I would have recognized him very quickly had I not read his name in the opening titles. MacMurray had his breakthrough with this movie, and only God knows why. Colbert is charming and cute, and does her best but the script offers little.There is the absurd way in which Colbert and Milland fall into a dumb bad-comedy-style "misunderstanding". Later, when MacMurray publishes lies about Colbert she isn't even properly angry at him! Jesus, even comedies have to follow SOME basic logic regarding human behaviour.

col-klink In this very sweet and charming picture, Claudette Colbert is Marilyn David, a girl divided between two men. One is an English nobleman traveling unknown (Lord Granton/Charles Gray, played by Ray Milland) and the other a friend reporter (Peter Daws, played by Fred MacMurray, in his good old American style). Colbert has a strong friendship bond with MacMurray - they meet each other every Thursday to sit on a bench, take off the shoes and eat popcorn while the world is passing by - while Milland is just that kind of guy women fall for. It is a lovely picture, with a predictable ending, but representing very well a reasonable woman exercising her selection privileges during the good old times, when marriage was meaningful and fidelity and trust where more valuable then gold. There is no use in putting here a good word for Colbert. After all, as everybody knows, she is just fantastic.