why all the negative reviews? spoiler

All I can think is the early copy was so poor. With a good copy it's lots of fun.

Not understanding that nobody but an "old fashioned man with old-fashioned ideas" would try to force a woman to marry someone because she was allegedly in a cabin with a man, (or lacking that, dragging her back to marry the man she despised), well, I hardly know what to say about that lapse in concentration by a viewer. With Americans in a pre-code movie like this one, they freely talked about a marriage of convenience ("Lots of people get married who aren't really married") and a quickie divorce, despite an engagement. There were even books and movies about companionate marriage, which was sort of a try and see if you like it deal.

I loved the part with Weenie and Harold.

And the part of the wedding ceremony about kissing the husband and best man!

And Jim's gym.

I liked that they all met in WWI. In most US movies there isn't much reference to wars in years past unless the plot was the plight of the veterans or it was set in the war, like Wings.

I would have changed the hunt ball dance to something peppier. Tom wasn't very helpful in getting free to marry her but he didn't mind pushing his best friend into it. That made the plot drag in places. Of course if he had thrown over Margaret and married Sunny on the boat there wouldn't have been a story, but he was too much of a sap, uh, gentleman to do that. It could have been eight-ten minutes shorter, and rewritten a little in spots that were repetitive, the women too manipulative, the men too spineless. I could have done with less of her father, too.

Realistically, I have to wonder if the married couple would have had to be living apart to get a divorce. They obviously didn't need a co-respondent in that state. Marrying on ship without papers of any sort seems of dubious legality particularly getting an immediate divorce once they got to America, but I don't know for sure.

On the other hand, in many spots the dialogue is witty. Marilyn reminded me of Sonja Henie minus dimples.

Is vandalism cap a British term?