'Oh Kay!' was originally a Broadway musical starring Gertrude Lawrence, with songs by the Gershwin brothers. It's generally considered one of their better scores, with gems such as 'Someone to Watch Over Me', 'Do, Do, Do (What You Done, Done, Done Before)' and "Clap-a Yo' Hand". Regrettably, this is a silent film ... so forget about hearing any of those tunes here. At least leading lady Colleen Moore is spared the necessity of attempting an English accent in the lead role as Lady Kay Rutfield. Moore was from the midwest: she got into movies with the help of her uncle Walter Howey, the Chicago newspaper editor who inspired the character Walter Burns in 'The Front Page'.
Lady Kay is engaged to marry Lord Braggot, but she isn't having any. Kay gives him the slip in her sloop, but she's nearly asleep in the deep when her kitschy ketch catches fire at sea. Fortunately, she's rescued in Long Island Sound by a shipload of bootleggers, bringing their cargo of Prohibition hooch into the States. (Good performances by Alan Hale and Ford Sterling.) They're storing the booze in the house of Long Island playboy Jimmy Winter, and the intertitles are careful to inform us that Jimmy isn't aware of this. Jimmy is engaged to Constance Appleton, but from the way Kay looks at him it's clear that she has other plans.
Kay's father the Earl of Rutfield issues a reward for her return, but Kay has no desire to be returned to a forced marriage to Lord Braggot. To support herself, she changes her name to Hortense and gets a job as Jimmy's housemaid, for which she has no training. Constance comes to dinner with her father, played by sour-faced character actor Claude Gillingwater. Kay ineptly serves him a glass of water with a live goldfish in it. The expression on Gillingwater's face is priceless.
Despite the absence of George and Ira Gershwin's contributions, this film captures the frothy humour of the Broadway musical, which I've seen in revival. It's a shame that Gertrude Lawrence's performance didn't make it into this film version. 'Oh Kay!' is mindless fun, but the fun is more important than the mindlessness. I'll rate this flimsy whimsy 8 out of 10. If you see 'Kay!', you'll enjoy it ... even without the songs.
