1948 romantic comedy Rating: 17/20 (Jen: 17/20, although she dozed off several times and probably didn't even see the ending.
Plot: A conductor finds out from his brother-in-law and a private detective that his young and beautiful wife is cheating on him with his secretary. He gets as surly as the ghost of the seaman in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. During a concert performance, he dreams up a triad of ways to approach his wife's infidelity--murder, forgiveness, and a poetic suicide. When he gets back to his apartment, he has difficulty executing his plans.
"Have you ever heard of Russian Roulette?"
"Why, certainly. I used to play it all the time with my father."
I rarely laugh at movies, even ones that I think are funny, and it's very rare that I'm going to laugh at somewhat dated comedy like this. But, I laughed out a couple few times while watching this one (scenes featuring uproarious and mad laughter, a recording machine, and the above dialogue). Stuffed with snappy, well-written dialogue and possibly a few too many slapstickly moments, this is as a whole a tidy little comedy that zips along quickly enough. The beginning is fairly pedestrian while the ending is Hollywoodly predictable, but the middle daydreaming section leading into the reality following the concert performance is pretty hilarious. There's a style to this movie that is barely noticeable but that makes it a more unique experience than other romantic comedies of the 40s. I don't believe I'd ever seen a Preston Sturges movie before this, and I like it enough to check out more.
Jen and I watching Unfaithfully Yours. See? She's obviously not awake here:
I was really surprised to see that you had seen this. It really didn't seem like the type of film that you would see unless it was on one of our "5" lists.
ReplyDeleteI actually loved the edginess of this movie, especially Harrison's sarcasm and aggression early on. I thought everything held up very well until the over the top, slapstick, post-concert scenes. It's as if Sturges lost control and felt like he had to point out what was funny for the audience. I have never seen a film where sound effects were so distracting or damaging. The white bread on the sandwich had a sound effect, for God's sake. Twice!
It's too bad, because this was often a unique and terrific film. It is still very good, but instead of the 17 it could have had, I'm going to have to give it a 15.
Heh, I don't really remember much about the sound effects except for some loudness during some of the slapstick moments (the guy falling through a chair) or the stuff with the record.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I thought this movie was hilarious. It was one of my new favorites from last year. I thought the post-concert slapstick scenes brought together all of his during-concerts fantasies really well.