William Powell, as a convicted killer on his way to the Chair, is in a Singapore gin joint. He's just about to enjoy his first sip of a Paradise Cocktail when he spills most of it -- after being bumped by Kay Francis, who smiles brightly despite having an incurable disease. "The wast dwops," she comments breathlessly. "Always the most pwecious!" <br /><br />And so begins this perfect little daydream of a movie, with the absurd gallantry of the characters nicely set off by the crude pre-Code realism of the settings and details. Powell and Francis, who teamed for the last time here, were never better; they defuse the sentimentality of the material by underplaying it and playing against it. Warren Hymer and Frank McHugh, usually quite unendurable little toads, have the good luck to share their scenes with the serenely grounded and generous Aline MacMahon, whose sure touch turns them both into princes.<br /><br />The silly old-movie tropes, like the love theme that plays each time the lovers share a cocktail, or their ritual of breaking their glasses on the bar and crossing the stems, pay off beautifully in the final scene. You'll laugh at yourself, but you'll choke up anyway.<br /><br />p.s. Remade in 1940 as "Til We Meet Again," with pieces of "Dark Victory" crudely grafted on, the peerlessly uninteresting George Brent and Merle Oberon as the leads, and McHugh back to being a toad.