Not So Dumb

Dulcy Parker is the most well-meaning, supportive fiancee a business up-and-comer could want, except that she's a birdbrain who spews idiotic malapropisms when otherwise not saying and doing the wrong thing to the wrong person throughout the weekend dinner party she's arranged to better her intended's fortunes. She's also reason to cheer, since the nimbly enchanting Marion Davies plays her to the hilarious hilt in this wacky screen adaptation of the George S. Kaufman/Marc Connelly Broadway hit Dulcy. Reteaming with King Vidor, who showcased her comedic gifts in the The Patsy and Show People, Davies dizzily goes to town in a "deft precursor to the screwball farces of the 1930s and '40s" (Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide). Featuring future director Elliott Nugent as her increasingly exasperated beau, Franklin Pangborn as a swoony Hollywood scenarist and future ace screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart (The Philadelphia Story) as a lecherous tycoon, Not So Dumb is 76 marvelous minutes of smart and screw-loose effervescence.

• drama