“Guess where I am!”
“Oh Arthur! Where are you?”
“I don’t know. It’s all covered in snow”
1936 was one of those years where Hollywood was just trying to release as many movies as they could like throwing spaghetti on a wall to see if it sticks. Snowed Under does not stick, but it has a few good bits, one-liners, and shows off the talents of many forgotten character actors. Mostly, it’s just tired shenanigans (yes, even in 1936 there were overused film stereotypes).
Alan Tanner (George Brent) has been struggling to rewrite the third act of his play which opens soon. His producer and friend, Arthur Layton (Porter Hall) asks Alan’s ex-wife Alice (Genevieve Tobin) to help him. It is suggested that at one time, the three of them were a great playwright- editor - producer trio and she agrees out of her friendship to Arthur. However, also showing up at Alan’s Connecticut cabin are his second ex-wife Daisy (played by the original tough girl Glenda Farrell), Daisy’s lawyer McBride (John Eldredge), a deputy/former milkman named Orlando (Frank McHugh), and Alan’s young love struck neighbor Pat (Patricia Ellis).
Daisy is demanding Alan be arrested for missing her alimony payments, Pat is declaring her undying love, and Alice just wants everyone to shut up so Alan and finish his work. Then, as the title suggests, the group is snowed in for the night and the shenanigans ensue.
What I did enjoy was the writing talk. Alice is clearly a professional and she writes half of the third act herself (without expecting credit because it’s the 1930s). Pat keeps insisting that Alan doesn’t need Alice and she could keep him writing, yet never does anything to prove this. And Daisy just wants the play finished so she can get paid. Still, there’s a great scene where Alice turns to Daisy (her rival and the reason for her divorce) and asks, “Would you do me a favor? Would you read what I’ve done to that third act and tell me what you think of it?” And Daisy grins happily at the woman who Alan was always comparing her to and responds, “I’d love to read it.”
As for Alan, he criticizes Alice’s work to the point that she tries to burn it. He says he does this to see if she really cared about what he had to say, but in truth I find it a simply awful moment in the film. It showed to me that he didn’t respect her talent. However, the entire thing ends in horseplay, Pat coming in to angrily confront Alan, and Alice just giddy that for once she gets to be the other woman. Lady, your ex-husband just tried to make it seem like your work as his editor and co-writer, is no good. Stay angry!
I could give insight into Alan’s writing. Honestly, with all the other chaos, he really does not do a lot of that.
Spoiler alert: Alan does give Alice credit in the end. Despite all of the tired tropes in this, I did not see that coming.
