The Big Pond (1930)

Once it gets going, this is quite a fun vehicle for Maurice Chevalier as he falls in love with a chewing gum heiress. “Pierre” accompanies “Barbara” (Claudette Colbert) to her American home where her father (George Barbier) has his name on just about everything. He is quite a shrewd old gent, so rather than row with his loved-up daughter he offers her beau a job. Now we are not talking about an highly paid office job with an expense account, no. We are talking about a factory floor opportunity where his foreman has been charged with making his life as awkward as possible. Meantime, “Ronnie” (Frank Lyon) has always had designs on “Barbara” and so misses no opportunity to malign his European competitor. When one of dad’s grand designs to get “Pierre” fired ends up delivering unexpectedly profitable results, the relationship dynamics change all around, but as “Pierre” nears his goals of self-sufficiency might “Barbara” begin to lose interest in what he has had to become to achieve those? I could have done with more of Colbert. She features all too sparingly after the opening scenes in Venice, and it’s that light-heartedness that works best for this simple comedy. That said, Barbier puts some enjoyable effort in and the plot has something of the Roald Dahl to it, too. It’s a gentle comedy, predicable but amiable and it kills an hour effortlessly.