TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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I was in a Toronto record store (Sam the Record Man) one time and spotted Catherine O'Hara looking at some albums. This was in the early days of SCTV being on television. I was a fan of the show and so introduced myself to tell her how much I enjoyed her work in it. At that early time in the series, when the cast members were being introduced at the beginning of the show, the cast introductions would end with the commentator saying "And Dave Thomas as the Beaver."
So, as I talked to O'Hara, when Thomas suddenly materialized beside her, I said, "And there's the Beaver!" They were both polite and smiled a lot as I complimented their show. I don't recall either of them saying much and they were probably dying for me to move on so they could resume their record hunt. So I was gone within a minute or so.
A few years later I spotted another SCTV cast member, Joe Flaherty, sitting on a bar stool. I walked up to him to tell him how much I enjoyed his work, particularly as Count Floyd. Unfortunately I was waiting for a friend to return from the washroom at the time and she was in a supremely bad mood about something or other (which, actually, had nothing to do with me). As I started to address Flaherty she walked up to me behind him and gave me a shove in the chest, accusing me of blocking her egress. She then stormed away as Flaherty's eyes popped from his head with a "What was that about?" expression in them. I shrugged my shoulders and tried to adopt a causal "I don't even know her" attitude. But the mood of the moment was broken and I knew it was pointless to try to tell him how much I enjoyed his work so I moved on to rejoin my friend.
I didn't actually meet Rodney Dangerfield but he sat two bar stools away from me at a Vegas keno bar. When the girl between us asked me who he was (because people were converging upon him asking for autographs) I jokingly told her to dump her drink on him as he didn't get any respect anyway. Dangerfield, obviously annoyed by the attention, quickly left the bar. I noticed he was wearing very tacky bermuda shorts and I was struck at the time by the fact that he had bow legs. I was also surprised that in person he was not as burly a man as he appeared to be on television or the movie screen.
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13 hours ago, Vautrin said:
3) When Widmark is seen in profile, as in the early scene with Vic in the cell and in a
few other scenes, he reminds me of Redgrave's dummy in Dead of Night.
That makes me think that there could be a great ventriloquist serial killer film in which the psycho gets off on having the victims tell him how good looking he is and the victims are going nuts, thinking, "Wait a minute, where's that voice coming from? I'm not saying that!"
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An autograph collecting acquaintance of mine staked out a Toronto hotel where Cary Grant was staying to try to get his autograph. But every time he saw Grant and tried to approach him the actor spotted him and quickly darted away. This acquaintance, though, was nothing if not persistent. Upon sighting him once again he quickly rushed up and asked him for his signature. Grant gave him a dirty look, signed his piece of paper and then made a point of disgustedly saying, "GoodBYE!!!!" before walking away. Perhaps some actors feel they are being stalked by autograph hounds and I assume, on this occasion, at least, that Cary Grant was one of them.
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5 minutes ago, SansFin said:
I thank you for reviewing this. It came up in the Amazon Prime Video "viewers also watched" section after I had watched one movie. I very much like Bob Cummings and his gentle good nature. I endured up to the point where police visit him at the hotel and the girls he was chatting up scattered when they heard the title phrase. I had been feeling a little guilty about giving up on it but you make it plain that it does not get better.
You didn't miss a classic, Sans Fin. But I suspect you already knew that when you stopped watching it.
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Five Golden Dragons (1967)
Harmless if predictably stupid action adventure about a naive American tourist in Hong Kong who somehow gets involved with an international crime syndicate, headed by the five title characters, who are meeting one another for the first time in that Far East city.
The film starts off with a man in a taxi being followed by slimy looking people in another taxi, that man making his way to the top floor of an apartment building where he is almost immediately thrown off a balcony. Before his murder, though, he hands a letter to the cab driver. The cabbie gives the letter to the police, with the name of the American tourist (played by Bob Cummings) on the outside of the letter. The note inside simply says Five Golden Dragons, which nobody initially understands. By the end of the film I still didn't know why the note was addressed to Cummings outside of it being a plot device to draw him into whatever story this film has.
In any event the largely incoherent plot is the least of this film's charms. The on location shooting in Hong Kong is done in bright, attractive colour, and there are a few chases, one of them pretty good, another more than a little silly. There are also a number of very attractive young women in skimpy attire in this film, Maria Perschy, Margaret Lee and Maria Rohm as James Bond-like eye candy. Cummings even makes casual reference to Goldfinger at one point.
Cummings refuses to take any of the plot seriously, adopting a jokey, glib attitude, throwing out a lot of weak ad libs. It tends to undermine any moments in the film (not that there are many of them) that are intended to be taken half seriously. Cummings does look excited, however, at being able to share the screen with so many hot looking babes while he was in his well preserved, middle aged years.
There are also four "guest star" appearances made in this production by some film veterans who play four of the five golden dragons, Dan Duryea, Brian Donlevy, George Raft and Christopher Lee. All four actors are wasted in their fleeting film appearances and, of them, only Duryea has a little bit of dialogue as Dragon #1. It looks more than a little campy silly when these four actors sit around a table in silky Chinese robes wearing dragon head disguises.
That's Raft and Donlevy. Or is it Duryea and Lee?
Sadly, this film would be one of the final film appearances of both Duryea and a particularly grey haired Donlevy. It was also the last theatrical film release of Bob Cummings, with the rest of his career being work on television.
2 out of 4
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Lots of posters here seem to be down on THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. My only real issue with the film is Margaret Sullavan's performance. Or is it the actress's personality? I've never quite understood her appeal for some.
Aside from that I find it a lovely, enchanting turn-of-the-century story, with a quaintly atmospheric Prague setting (marvelous art direction!) and a superior cast making the most of its material. I love the character work in this film. I enjoy watching Joseph Schildkraut's conniving little two face, always kissing up to the boss, as well as Felix Bressart, quickly disappearing whenever his "honest opinion" is sought by that boss. Above all, though, I enjoy this film for Frank Morgan's sensitive portrayal as the owner of the shop. He brings a touching vulnerability, in particular, to his final scene in the film, when he is hoping to find company on a lonely Christmas Eve. It's a moment that can give me a lump in the throat. This is one of the great performances of Morgan's career, one to be cherished.
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4 hours ago, kingrat said:
Having loved Julien Duvivier's Un carnet de bal, recently on TCM, I checked out The Great Waltz (1938) from the local library. This was a top-of-the-line MGM production, with sets by Cedric Gibbons and beautiful gowns by Adrian. Oscar winner for cinematography and it deserved one for editing as well. The film looks incredible and the print is fine. The process shots are much better than usual at this time.
First, the possible drawbacks. The minor one: I believe some people on these boards are not fond of "Woo-hoo" Hugh Herbert, who plays a small role as Johann Strauss' music publisher. The major drawback, for some, would be Luise Rainer as Strauss' sweetheart and eventually wife. Rainer is a capable actress, and charming in the early scenes here, but often she is given scenes as a Noble Sufferer--here a smiling Noble Sufferer, not a type we tend to find sympathetic these days. She loves her husband, you see, so if he chooses to have an affair with a woman about a hundred times more interesting than she is, and it it makes him happy, then it makes her happy too, because she loves him--that sort of thing.
Everything else in the movie is just about terrific. Fernand Gravet as Strauss is sort of at the Robert Taylor level--not brilliant, but effectively cast and more than acceptable. He also sings well in his one solo. Miliza Korjus (she was hyped as "Gorgeous Korjus") has been called the missing link between Lily Pons and Mae West. As the immensely popular opera singer Mme. Carla Donner, she is Strauss' artistic soulmate, one sexy lady with amazing screen presence, and a superb coloratura soprano. Many people today do not care for the operetta style of singing, but in a scene where she shocks the nobility by singing a Strauss waltz, the coloratura trills and fancywork seems like both sexy enticement and an expression of the love of music which is the love of life.
In The Great Waltz music comes out of the life of the people and expresses the whole society. Music = life. This is perhaps most fully expressed in the scene (which seemed corny when excerpted in That's Entertainment, Part II, but not in the context of the film) where Strauss' "Tales from the Vienna Woods" begins to take shape from the coachman, the horses, the shepherds, the gypsies, and Strauss and the woman he loves. Although Victor Fleming and Josef von Sternberg also contributed to the direction of the film, the vision must have been Duvivier's, as one beautifully directed scene musically flows into another, coming only to a temporary halt in Rainer's scenes in the second half.
Especially of note is a long tracking shot of Gravet and Korjus dancing indoors and outdoors. Another wonderful touch: early in the film a series of cuts goes from Strauss and his band to an ever bigger and ever emptier room without customers; at the dramatic climax of the film Luise Rainer arrives late at the opera, and here the series of cuts broadens, first to more and more of the opera house, then to the opera being performed on stage. This is great direction.
Great review, kingrat. You make me feel like it's time to view The Great Waltz again. Miliza Korjus made a big impression upon me, magnificent voice, and a striking statuesque lady with great screen presence. The Polish soprano received a supporting Oscar nomination for her performance in The Great Waltz but elaborate plans for a musical followup were aborted following a 1940 automobile accident in which one of her legs was so severely injured that amputation was considered at one point. The singer recovered but only appeared in one more film, made in Mexico in 1942.
I realize that many on these boards are not into musical operettas but, for those who are, Korjus' appearance in The Great Waltz is a major reason for viewing this film. The film's corny but glorious beautifully edited and photographed portrayal of the creation of "Tales of the Vienna Woods" alone is worth the price of admission.
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Under My Skin (1950)
Loose adaption of a Hemingway short story, "My Old Man," featuring John Garfield as an American jockey, taking horse race dives, on the dodge from gamblers and hoods as he tries to eke out a living in Italy, before then fleeing to Paris.
Directed by Jean Negulesco and released by 20th Century Fox, this was Garfield's third last film released to indifferent reviews. Somehow any drama here largely fails to jell. Garfield is certainly attractive, with his slightly rugged look and that lost little boy way about him, but he fails to make any real impression in a sketchily drawn characterization. Luther Adler, though, is smooth as the gambler hood who, with a pair of goons, trails him. French leading lady Micheline Prelle (also known as Presle), playing a night club singer, shines best in any of her scenes in which she sings a song with her smoky voice. Her characterization, though, as a woman who initially dislikes Garfield before, predictably, falling for him makes less of an impression.
There's a lot of obvious rear screen projection in this film and Garfield is clearly doubled in numerous action scenes. Knowing that the actor had heart problems and would be dead two years later, it feels eerie when he talks about being pooped after jogging. Orley Lindgren, who had just played a jazz loving boy in the early scenes in Young Man With A Horn who grows up to be Kirk Douglas, plays Garfield's son in this film.
Under My Skin does have one effective scene in which Garfield, drunk, comes stumbling into the night club and listens to Prelle sing a song as a bar girl, whom he ignores, whispers to him and offers him a smoke. Garfield stumbles out of the bar, Prelle follows him and there is an exchange of dialogue, with Garfield's bitterness tumbling forth from his mouth as he throws money on the ground. It's a strong, edgy moment and Garfield is moody and good in it, making us appreciate once again what an effective, appealing, hurting actor he could be when assisted by good writing and direction.
Micheline Prelle, by the way, is still with us today, 68 years after Garfield's heart attack death. At 98, she is the actor's sole surviving leading lady.
2.5 out of 4
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1 hour ago, speedracer5 said:
Imo, the real star of Caddyshack are these pants that Rodney Dangerfield is wearing! They even match his golf bag. They remind me of the "hostess pants" that Lucy buys Ethel for her birthday. Lucy says that Ethel can wear them when she gives "smart dinner parties." After Lucy describes the outfit she envisioned for the pants (black off-the-shoulder blouse, a big cushy belt, and ballet slippers), I wish we would have seen them in a subsequent episode.
Back in the early '80s, as I sat on bar stool in Caesar's Palace in Vegas, I recall a number of patrons there suddenly converging upon the person who was sitting at the bar on the other side of the girl sitting beside me. They all had pens and pieces of paper. I looked to see who it was, as did the girl beside me who then asked me who it was. When I replied "Rodney Dangerfield" she still had a blank expression upon her face as though she had never heard of him.
I recall telling her to dump her drink on him as he didn't get any respect anyway, as Dangerfield got off his stool and started walking away protesting, "Give me a break, will ya? I'm just trying to have a drink." (He also appeared to be chatting up a young girl on the other side of him).
Years later a friend of mine told me that she had met Dangerfield in Toronto. They got along great, so great that he afterwards sent her return air tickets to visit him in NYC when he opened his night club, Dangerfield's. He paid for a hotel room for her and she spent a week with him in a constant state of laughter from his jokes. She told me she suspects that one of the reasons Dangerfield liked her was that he could tell she genuinely liked him as a person, rather than just being another groupie wanting to hang out in the glow of his celebrity status.
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3 minutes ago, txfilmfan said:
Agree with both points. When you compare the number of theatrical films made by Hall and Conrad, they're not that different. Conrad was certainly better known.
As to that western from the 1960s, one of my earliest TV memories is from that show. My Dad watched it every Friday. I would watch the cold open and the animated intro, and then go off and do something else. I was only 5 when it went off the air.
Your Dad's taste in shows was the same as mine, at least in this case. These opening credits from The Wild Wild West are a real nostalgia trip for me.
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People tend to forget about Michael Hall when his character disappears without explanation from The Best Years of Our Lives. TCM has corrected that to a degree by not forgetting about the actor when he died. I believe he's the last cast member of that William Wyler classic to leave us.
As a kid who looked forward to the further adventures of Jim West every Friday night back in the late '60s, I join those who wish that Robert Conrad had been remembered.
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Gentlemen Of The Press (1929)
Early Paramount talkie about the personal sacrifices that a journalist makes in putting his career over his family. An interesting curio, with solid performances from Walter Huston as the journalist (who hasn't seen his daughter in eight years!) and Kay Francis in her film debut as a high class flirt who becomes Huston's mistress and eventually his secretary after he gets a job promotion.
The problem with this film is that its various story threads, whether it's in regard to Huston's relationship with his daughter or Francis, are never fully fleshed out. For example, it's only through the dialogue that we even hear that Kay had been his lover before becoming his secretary. We never actually see it. Nevertheless it's interesting to see Francis playing a manipulator who uses her charm and sexual allure to hook men, as, even though she is Huston's mistress, she sets her sights on his daughter's husband (played by Norman Foster before he became a director) as another conquest. One more note for Kay Francis fans. Yes, in this, her first film, she is very much a fashion plate.
One more thing. Charlie Ruggles is in this film as a reporter who is perpetually soused, done in the days when Hollywood regarded screen drunks as funny. Ruggles is an actor I have found amusing in some of his later screen efforts but his drunk act in this film became wearisome for me very quickly. Finally, in the soft print of this film that I saw the tops of the heads of the actors were often cut off in the long shots. The picture below is a perfect illustration of it. I hope there are better prints of this film still in existence.
2.5 out of 4
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17 minutes ago, Lori Ann said:
I love that one! I might have to choose "Virginia City" as my favorite though. "Sea Hawk" is also in the top 5 for me.
Lori
Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk are my two favourite pirate films, both having the courage to play the old fashioned material straight (unlike the Pirates of the Caribbean series).
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1 minute ago, Lori Ann said:
I haven't seen that movie yet.
Lori
Captain Blood was the most important film in Flynn's career because, if he hadn't had that success, none of the others were likely to have ever followed. Thanks to a variety of reasons, not the least of them Michael Curitz's direction, it is still one of the best pirate adventures ever made, maybe even the best. Considering Errol's inexperience, while he's a little stiff in some scenes, he still gives a remarkable performance. It takes something for an actor to have unreal dialogue like, "Up that rigging, you monkeys. Aloft! And watch the wind fill the sails that will take us all to freedom!" and make it work.
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A NOIR LOVE STORY
"You realize, of course, that the reason I have sex with men like you is only because I find you so completely repulsive. You're like some creature that oozed out from underneath a rock and doing it with you is my way of punishing myself because I'm a worthless nonentity who doesn't deserve to live."
"Suits me."
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12 hours ago, Vautrin said:
Absolutely, though afterwards it had to be a bring down to know why she did it. She certainly did mature in
the space of eleven years. Lost that jail bait look. Thumb? Nope not going there.
No question that Martha Vickers looked pretty classy in The Burglar but the film barely made a ripple at the 1957 box office (with Mansfield getting the publicity) and it would turn out to be the actress's second last film appearance. The sad reality is that, aside from her appearance as thumb sucking Carmen in The Big Sleep, Vickers is remembered for very little else today because of a mismanaged film career. This truly beautiful actress was only 46 when she died of cancer in 1971. What a sense of waste you feel when you look at those cold stats on her short life.
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4 hours ago, Ray Faiola said:
Someone named Roger Fristoe wrote an article on Laurel and Hardy for the TCM website. One portion about Stan Laurel near the end reads "He died in 1965, reportedly in poverty, after suffering a heart attack."
Stan Laurel was never impovershed. He was never "reportedly" impovershed. Nobody who knew him ever considered him impovershed. Where do "journalists" such as this come up with stuff like this? Do they pick it out of thin air? Do they infer it from fictional biopics? If you don't live in a mansion does that mean you're impovershed?
It's an unfortunate insult to a gentleman who enjoyed his final years living modestly in a beachfront apartment in Santa Monica, constantly visited by and corresponding with his friends and admirers.
Stan's apartment was on the apartment side facing the Pacific Ocean. He loved his ocean view, and interacted with comedy admirers in his final years such as Dick Van Dyke (who was shocked in find his telephone number listed in the local directory) and Jerry Lewis.
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10 minutes ago, nakano said:
About The Burglar nobody mentionned the horrendous music score by Sol Kaplan it was way too loud and constant like in a serie z movie. The editor was surely deaf and did not care about the dialogue, i found it very irritating ,Duryea was very good as always but giving him 35 was a bit funny.
Duryea's features were definitely weathered for only 35 (he was actually 48). Anyone who has seen Dan's flamboyant, extroverted performances in westerns like Winchester 73 or Ride Clear of Diablo (in both of which he is great), will appreciate the actor's skill in The Burglar in which he was every bit as effective with a beautifully understated performance. Think, too, of his slimy rat performances in earlier noirs like Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street and Criss Cross. And, then, there was his memorable turn, bringing vulnerability to the role of a low life who becomes an alcoholic weakling in Too Late for Tears. Dan Duryea was one of the most dependable of Hollywood character actors. It's nice that The Burglar gave him the top billed lead role, for a change.
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40 minutes ago, Vautrin said:
Dan also should have replaced the painting that covered the safe, though time was getting tight,
though Sister Sarah didn't seem very alert to her surroundings, maybe because she was on an astral
plane after turning off the TV. And how disappointed he must have been when he learned, by eaves-
dropping, that Martha Vickers didn't seduce him because he was a hunk but because it was part
of the plan to get the necklace. Ouch, that must have hurt.
Better to have Martha Vickers seduce you for any reason than not seduce you at all. She might even suck on your thumb.
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24 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
Eddie has shown "The Set-Up" on Noir Alley, I think maybe even earlier this year. Within the last 12 months or so, anyway.
Thanks, Miss W. I don't recall seeing The Set Up scheduled but, since they seem to be having repeats on Noir Alley, this R-K-O- production should hopefully qualify. I viewed the film on DVD about a year ago or so and wrote the following review.
The Set Up (1949)
Coming two years after the success of Body and Soul and released just before Champion, director Robert Wise's The Set Up, unlike the other two boxing dramas, deals exclusively with the down and outers in the sport. There are no championship belts to be found in this film. It's the sleazy side of a seedy sport, concentrating on an aging fighter who still dreams of that one big punch one day that will give him a shot at something big.
Paradise City, the setting of the film, represents all the small time dive towns of lost hopes, cheap liquor and gambling greed. It is there that Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan), an ancient fighter at 35, is set on the under card against an upcoming young fighter promoted by a gambling hood. Stoker thinks he can take the kid. His girl (Audrey Totter) is tired of it all, afraid that Stoker will get brain damaged or killed. She wants them to work a cigar stand somewhere instead. But Stoker's a fighter, and fighting is all he knows. What Stoker doesn't know, however, is that his sleazy manager has agreed that he will take a fall in that fight.
The seedy ambience of the small town is magnificently realized in this atmospheric small budget gem, with its flashing neons and restless crowds strolling the streets looking for some kind of action. The billboard on the town arena says it all "Boxing Wednesdays. Wrestling Fridays." The atmosphere is carnival like.
A good portion of the film, though, is set in the small change room of the fighters, as the boxers prepare for battle that night. One is a youngster about to have his first fight, who throws up when he hears what another boxer just did in the ring. Another is a tough blowhard, looking forward to his date with "a mouse" that night, while another, clearly nearing the punch drunk stage, repeats the name of another fighter who, after losing 21 fights in a row, got a shot at a championship and somehow won.
And then there's Stoker, who listens to the others while worrying if his girl will show up at the fight. Robert Ryan, as Stoker, is tired but hopeful. Later he will be scared as he runs for his life. Not at this moment, though, as he feels he can beat "the kid" that is getting the buildup.
A middle aged Ryan has a wealth of experience behind his tired eyes. But he also brings a grim determination and fighting spirit to his part. Audrey Totter, a film noir icon, brings that same tired anguish to her role as Stoker's girl, and is memorably quite wonderful.
Also making vivid impressions are George Tobias as Stoker's sweaty, cigar chomping manager, Percy Helton as his equally sweaty pot bellied squirt of an assistant, both of them strictly out for themselves, as well as Alan Baxter as "Little Boy," the gangster who expects Stoker to take a fall, cool and cold blooded, with a quiet expression that undoubtedly masks a soulless interior.
The fight scenes are savage and unglamourous, with an off balance fighter knocked down before stumbling to his feet again to wail back into battle. Wise also has frequent cutaway shots to the ring spectators, the sweaty fat man eating junk food, laughing at a fighter as he stumbles, the woman, forever shouting, "Let 'em fight. Kill him!," and the blind man leaning forward to receive a running commentary on the action from a friend. Wise's film is an uncompromising look at the low side of an often dirty sport.
And yet there is still an element of hope to be found here. At the end, as a man's head is being cradled in a woman's arms, The Set Up is a film that burns with humanity.
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23 minutes ago, Vidor said:
That's no joke. I watched "Too Much, Too Soon" a while back and, while all-in-all it wasn't a very good movie--couldn't bring myself to care about Diana Barrymore--man, Errol Flynn. The man was only 49 and he looked 20 years older, face melted like a wax candle. He also delivers one hell of a performance, one that makes you wish he'd lived longer, or that Warner Brothers had figured out better ways to use him in his heyday. Not that his WB films are bad, there are a lot of good ones, but he could do a lot more than adventure hero.
I think Flynn's John Barrymore performance is very poignant, much of that because you see so much of the real Flynn in the portrait. People who saw Errol in his later years talked of the sadness they saw in his eyes. Olivia de Havilland saw him in person for the first time in years in 1957, two years before his death, and spoke of how she initially didn't recognize him, that the mischief was gone from his eyes.
Of course Too Much Too Soon is full of fiction and part of that is in the gentility of Errol's portrayal of his old friend. The real Barrymore could be incredibly crude and coarse when drunk. Flynn shows nothing of that, giving us a far more sympathetic portrait. Dorothy Malone is not bad as Diana but my interest in the film completely vanishes once Flynn is gone from the production.
So much of the tragedy of the scene below is etched in Flynn's ravaged features. Yes, there's some aging makeup there but much of what we see is the actor himself. Recalling him in his prime, as a charismatic, robust, laughing Robin Hood, and then looking at him below, it's enough to make the angels weep.
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It's a trivial aspect of The Burglar, of course, but did anyone notice that, after watching the ten minute news reel at the beginning of the film, Dan Duryea walked out on a Laurel and Hardy film, Utopia? Mind you, he may have seen the film before and, truth be told, even L & H fans could probably barely get through it once.
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Considering that fact that The Burglar had a shoestring budget, director Paul Wendkos brought a lot of flash to the production, clearly influenced by Orson Welles. On location shooting in Philly and Atlantic City is a great benefit, and the Steel Pier climax makes one think of the fun house ending to Lady from Shanghai.
While bad cop actor Stewart Bradley lacks, shall we say, subtle shadings to his jaw clenching performance, Dan Duryea, on the other hand, delivers a textbook illustration of minimalist acting as its finest as a middle aged crook with integrity. His character has a debt of honour from the past that will be prove to be his greatest burden. And a young Jayne Mansfield, in one of her first film roles, delivers a credible, sympathetic performance that makes you wonder what may have happened to her career if she had had more opportunities as a serious actress rather than becoming the often self promoted blonde bombshell for which she is remembered.
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14 minutes ago, SansFin said:
He uses the word when reciting his poem to gentlemen. It is when he is reciting his poem to women at the ball that he pauses and gestures downward to imply the meaning.
What a gentleman.
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
I Was A Male War Bride (1949)
This is one of those famous comedies with a fairly big reputation that I just don't "get." Of course, humour is very personal but I watched this Howard Hawks directed affair again last night for the first time in a few years and was still left scratching my head as to the reason for its popularity.
Cary Grant plays a French (French? Really? Cary Grant?) army officer who is ordered to take a trip with American army officer Ann Sheridan for whatever reason in post war Germany. There is a lot of antagonistic bantering between the two leads which is mildly amusing at times, I admit, because these two actors were such great film romantic comedy pros. Eventually they fall in love (no surprise, of course) and get married.
Then comes this prolonged sequence in which they are trying to figure out a way for Grant to get shipped to the States with his wife so he registers as a war bride. It's perfectly legal, even though he's a man. There is then a lengthy sequence in which for bureaucratic reasons Grant, as a war bride, can't find a place to sleep, even though he qualifies for such in some army buildings but can't sleep there because of the reality of his sex. This bit went on forever, I thought, and I was hard pressed to find it even mildly amusing.
Of course, there is also the famous comedy "pay off" scene in which Grant wears a horse's tail for a wig and dresses as a woman in order to get aboard the war brides ship with his wife to take him to America. Yes, I can see why some would find this drag bit amusing because Grant looks awful, who would believe he is a woman and he keeps a great deadpan. One of the sailors even thinks, despite his/her face, that he has "nice gams."
Leonard Maltin, in his 3 star review, calls this film "delightful" with "hilarious results." Hilarious? Really? This light hearted material? But far more than just Maltin also feel warmly about this comedy, including Ann Sheridan herself in a '60s interview. Possibly the film's popularity partially stems from the fact that it is a Howard Hawks comedy, most of which enjoy positive reps. I have to say, though, that this one, along with Monkey Business, another comedy laboured Grant film, just doesn't do it for me.
I guess I never will get it. In the meanwhile for those who love this film, enjoy it for whatever gems you may find here. To be fair, Grant and Sheridan do have nice chemistry. I just wish that the material was as good as they are.
2.5 out of 4