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I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Queen High began life as a non-musical play called "A Pair of Sixes," which ran on Broadway back in 1914. The story concerns two men who manage the Eureka Novelty Company, makers of ladies' undergarments. The partners bicker constantly, and finally settle on a highly unusual method to resolve their differences: they draw cards, with the understanding that the man who holds the winning hand shall run the company on his own for one year, while the loser must act as the winner's manservant. A wacky idea? Sure, but a dandy premise for a farce comedy. In 1926 the show returned to Broadway with songs, rechristened "Queen High." This time it starred Charles Ruggles as one of the two partners -- the one who, much to his dismay, winds up playing butler to the other. And in 1930 this version (minus most of its songs) was filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studio, with Ruggles reprising his stage role opposite Frank Morgan. It's an inspired casting choice, for these two gifted performers play off each other beautifully. In support, as Morgan's niece, we find Ginger Rogers, still a teenager, still a brunette and still a flapper, but recognizably Ginger and absolutely adorable.With Ruggles, Morgan, and Rogers in the central roles you can't go far wrong. And indeed, Queen High is quite enjoyable over all, but prospective viewers should be advised it's very much a filmed play, not unlike the first two Marx Brothers movies produced at the same studio around this time. Aside from one brief sequence on a subway platform and in a train (presumably written for the film), it all looks very much like a stage performance. But seeing as how the material generally holds up well, and the lead players are so charming, what's wrong with watching a filmed play? Anyone who misses seeing the great outdoors on screen will find plenty of Westerns available.Most of the early scenes take place in the offices of the Eureka Novelty Co., the garter firm co-managed by T. Boggs Johns (Ruggles) and George Nettleton (Morgan). Art Deco buffs will get a kick out of the office's ultra-sleek design, while viewers who appreciate the sight of cute young lingerie models should be ready to hit the Pause button. One of the film's best sequences unfolds in Nettleton's office, a sprightly, seemingly spontaneous musical number called "Brother, Laugh It Off." Ginger introduces the song, then turns it over to several young workers who harmonize while one of the girls goes into a dance. Towards the end of the number, a second girl with a Louise Brooks bob dances on a small table. Watch her closely: that's 17 year-old Eleanor Powell, making her movie debut. And then, in a surprise finale, Morgan and Ruggles finish the song. This delightful scene is worth the price of admission by itself.Later, at the behest of their lawyer, the feuding partners decide to settle their disagreements with a card game, in the fashion described above. This is another good scene, suspenseful and funny. The second half of the film takes place at Nettleton's estate, where "Boggs" is now unhappily installed as butler. I confess I have mixed feelings about the film's second half; for me, some elements work better than others. On the plus side, there is Ruggles' rendition of a bizarre, outlandish number called "I Love the Girls in My Own Peculiar Way," in which he endeavors to frighten the other servants by boasting in song that he's a serial killer. (Think Sweeney Todd, played for laughs.) On the debit side, there's a low comedy maid played VERY broadly by an actress named Nina Olivette, whose style suggests Martha Raye, but without the finesse. To be charitable, her material isn't the greatest, but nonetheless Olivette's man-hungry shtick wears thin almost immediately. However, she does provide an interesting, real-life trivia note: Olivette's two sons both became actors in later years, Guy and Dean Stockwell. So for those who care, here's a rare look at their mom!In any case, and despite a very abrupt ending, Queen High is an amusing, novel treat for fans of early talkie musicals. I'd say the good sequences make up for the aspects that don't hold up so well. And for fans of Charles Ruggles, Frank Morgan, and Ginger Rogers, it's an absolute must.

... and not think very hard. The title brings forth images of perhaps the world's first film about high school angst with Ginger Rogers as the queen of her senior class? Not at all. Instead "queen high" is a card term that has to do with a bet that feuding partners in a garter company have made at the encouragement of ... their lawyer? The bet will have the winner running the business alone for one year and the loser being the winner's manservant during that same time. Wouldn't a simple split of the assets be easier? Well, yes, but not nearly as much fun as this early screwball comedy.Frank Morgan and Charles Ruggles play the feuding captains of industry and play off of one another like a high-class version of Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen in their buddy movies. Paramount always cast Ruggles as the drunk in his early films, but here they let him play it sober and it suits him. The fact that the business is a garter manufacturer gives an excuse for lots of scantily clad young ladies to wander in and out of scenes modeling the concern's latest products.Complicating matters for the feuding business partners is that Ruggles' character's nephew (Stanley Smith) and Morgan's character's niece (Ginger Rogers) have fallen in love. They mainly handle the musical scenes which are quite charming. Ginger Rogers was still going through her flapper persona phase in 1930 and her singing is pretty good and adds to the fun.The plot resolution is rather abrupt and not very satisfying, but the journey getting there is lots of fun. Highly recommended.

'Queen High' is ever so slightly a musical, based on a 1914 Broadway play that became a 1926 stage musical: the film jettisons most of the Broadway score and adds two new songs. Top billing goes to Stanley Smith (who?) and Ginger Rogers as the young lovers, but they warble their songs in operetta voices, and Ginger stands aside while the only dance number is performed by others! Smith's singing voice is badly dubbed by some guy who rolls his R's and broadens his A's, bearing no semblance to Smith's speaking voice. Ginger speaks all her dialogue in Gracie Allen's voice, and sings ditto.The actual lead roles are performed by Charles Ruggles (reprising his part from the 1926 musical) and Frank Morgan as equal partners in a firm that makes only one product: ladies' garters. (What we Brits would call "suspenders".) This premise offers huge potential for musical numbers (I kept expecting "Garter sing, garter dance!") but is ultimately wasted. Ruggles went through most of his film career with an annoying little moustache; midway through 'Queen High', he trades it for some annoying sideburns. For once, Ruggles isn't typecast as a meek husband; here, he earnestly courts Betty Garde and shows some backbone. He's also pursued by Nina Olivette, who's quite pretty but she's lumbered with a hideous hairstyle and even worse dialogue ... which is written in some horribly phony bad grammar that's vaguely prole American and vaguely prole British but really from Movie Cliché-Land. In one scene Ruggles cries her 'Australian', but she's definitely no Ozzie sheila, too right. (Another IMDb reviewer is mistaken; it's Olivette, not Garde, who plays the 'harassed maid'.)The two best songs here were written for the movie, both with lyrics by Yip Harburg: "Brother, Just Laugh It Off" (tune by Ralph Rainger) and "I Love the Girls in My Own Peculiar Way" (Henry Souvaine). The latter is a bizarre ditty in which Ruggles claims to be a serial killer of women. He's not much of a singer; he gets one of Yip Harburg's trademark wordplays -- "When you get pneumonia, I'll 'phone ya" -- but Ruggles clearly enunciates "phone YOU", queering the rhyme. He also mistreats a black laundress.In the opening shot, William Steiner's camera trundles forward lugubriously, twiddles its casters awhile, then trundles back again. The rest of the camera-work is merely adequate, except for one impressive set-up with Ruggles in a doorway. There's an attempt to give Stanley Smith an "entrance" by staging his first scene with his head hidden, gradually revealing his face. William Saulter's set designs throughout are excellent, especially a very convincing sequence on a New York subway platform and aboard the rush-hour train. Frank Morgan's tycoon character and his wife have a huge mansion, with twin beds about twelve feet apart.Modern viewers get the usual old-movie reminders that money's not what it used to be: in 'Queen High', Mrs Rockwell has an annual income of $6,000 yet serves her guests caviare.Most of the dialogue (from the original play) is quite witty, though we get a few clunkers. An orchestra musician plays "second bass", so we know this is the set-up for a baseball joke. Still, any movie that ends with a lawyer getting chucked into a pond can't be all bad.There's an acetate print of "Queen High" in the Library of Congress, duped from a bad nitrate print; the soundtrack pops, and many scenes are dark. In one dialogue sequence, Smith calls himself "red-headed", yet throughout the movie (this LoC print, at least) his hair looks jet-black. "Queen High" really isn't good enough to rank high on the list of films wanting restoration. This movie was released while Lon Chaney was on his deathbed, but I'll bet he wasn't dying to see it. The original 1914 play was titled 'A Pair of Sixes': I'll add one more six and rate this movie 6 out of 10.

The Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto showed this as their kick-off film in a Ginger Rogers Retrospective. A fun, fast-paced film with Ginger Rogers in a cute role as the female lead. Charles Ruggles and Frank Morgan play well off each other as rivals in work and romance. Betty Garde is a little over the top as a harassed maid. Her mugging and blank expressions are definitely from the old vaudeville school of acting. However, Ginger Rogers definitely shines as the female lead, playfully acting opposite Ruggles and Morgan. Also look for Nina Olivette (Mother of Dean Stockwell) in a saucy bit. Watch quickly for a bit by Eleanor Powell. This film will also be shown at Cinefest 2008.