Call It a Day


Call It a Day is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Olivia de Havilland, Ian Hunter, Anita Louise, Alice Brady, Roland Young, and Frieda Inescort. Based on the 1935 play Call It a Day by Dodie Smith, the film is about a day in the life of a middle-class London family whose lives are complicated by the first romantic signs of spring.

Plot

As the first day of spring arrives with unseasonably warm weather, the Hilton household is briefly turned upside down. Eldest daughter Cath has fallen hopelessly in love with the married artist painting her portrait, father Roger has his head turned by glamorous film star Beatrice Gwynn when he assists her with her taxes, wife Dorothy has an offer to elope to India with her friend's brother shortly after meeting him and son Martin wants to go motoring around the Continent until he encounters the attractive girl next door. Even youngest daughter Ann has developed an obsession with the Victorian artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. By the end of the day all is righted and a semblance of normality has returned.

Cast

Production

Soundtrack

  • "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" performed by Ian Hunter
  • "Isn't It Romantic?" performed by Marcia Ralston

    Reception

In his May 7, 1937, review, The New York Times' Frank Nugent said that he "enjoyed" the "tolerant and quietly humorous piece", and praised the ensemble cast. Two months later, writing for Night and Day, Graham Greene gave the film a poor review and complained about the self-sanitized story of temptations rejected in the face of infidelity. Greene also complains of the use of clichéd dialogue, which includes the stale line, "Do you mind if I slip into something more comfortable?" which, Greene adds, "to our astonishment the temptress reappear in just another evening dress."