I rarely write reviews but this was such a delightful gem of a romantic comedy that I had to support it.
I cannot even explain why it was so great. It's a simple little movie, low-key, 100% predictable, with an absurd premise, and moves kind of slow, with no extravagant sets. The script is linear and the dialog is adequate but hardly a work of genius.
Yet I enjoyed this more than any other film I've seen in a very long time. It was totally fun and, although there are much funnier comedies, ( Bringing Up Baby (1938), The In-Laws (1979), Simon (1980), Young Frankenstein (1974) come to mind), this one had me laughing out loud over and over, which I never do, because the comedy was so light hearted and due to the acting rather than the concept.
The film has, as you know, a terrific cast. Ginger Rogers has everything. She is beautiful, she is intelligent, she can sing (no singing though in this film), dance (some nice dancing), be depressed or do comedy. I actually like the chemistry with David Niven better than with Fred Astaire, they make a terrific couple. Niven is funny as hell, and all the supporting cast chimes right in with perfect comic timing. As soon as Charles Coburn showed up on screen I was smiling. The film is full of tiny bits of physical comedy and small gags by actors with only a few seconds of screen time, who all perform like seasoned pros turning simple bits into remarkable, funny-bone tickling scenes.
The comic acting is not stunning, as in the films I mentioned above; it is stylized, theatrical, a bit stiff. It's the style of the film which is not at all realistic, and somehow it works great. Rogers and Niven go through their comic facial expressions slowly and exaggeratedly, so everyone gets it, as if they were telling a story instead of acting it, and it adds to the effect of light heartedness.
The portrayal of the romance, from the initial attraction, through the growing awareness of feelings, is nicely observant and free of cliché. Both the script and the performance capture some of the real moments that happen as two people are drawn together.
The ending is, of course, a completely unbelievable high speed wind-up, fitting the conventions of the time, but I was wishing to follow the relationship along a more extended and realistic track. It would no longer have been a screwball comedy. And there is some absurd stop-motion animation of a mechanical duck where they don't even bother to move the feet properly. This is so blatantly faked that perhaps it is a signal from the director that he has been forced into a trite ending he disowns; or maybe just that the ending is forced by convention and not be taken seriously. It is as if it is Donald Duck who has dictated the final corny scene. It didn't bother me, though, because it is clear that the film would have had to end eventually like that even if it were worked out more believably.
Also someone complained that the landlady should have known the truth about Rogers' character, not recalling that Rogers' had only been her tenant three weeks- short enough to make the plot work out. And I think it is just fine to call a baby it- plus it shows the awkward relationship the single, childless characters have with the baby that suddenly shows up in their life.
If I had to say what it was that was so great about this film, other than seeing Ginger Rogers and David Niven, those two remarkable warm and generous personalities, playing off each other, it would be that the film seems to be filled with love and kindness. Released the year after Kristallnacht shocked the world, it features a saintly very Jewish landlady who comes to the rescue a number of times. There is a six month old baby, who does great work, and Rogers has some lovely scenes with the baby where she seems, briefly, to be genuine. Everyone wrongly thinks Rogers' character is an unwed mother, and there is not the slightest tinge of stigma associated with it throughout the film by any of the many characters that deal with her with kindness, love, acceptance and total respect (if not understanding), and there is also sympathy for the working class pain during the depression. The film totally avoids p retention, it wants to make us laugh and feel good, not to impress us, and it does.
So I give this an 8, but really in terms of the heart it is priceless gem of a film, without a single wrong note, for anyone who loves screwball comedy and the great actors of yesteryear whose like, I am afraid, the business is not likely to produce again.
I cannot even explain why it was so great. It's a simple little movie, low-key, 100% predictable, with an absurd premise, and moves kind of slow, with no extravagant sets. The script is linear and the dialog is adequate but hardly a work of genius.
Yet I enjoyed this more than any other film I've seen in a very long time. It was totally fun and, although there are much funnier comedies, ( Bringing Up Baby (1938), The In-Laws (1979), Simon (1980), Young Frankenstein (1974) come to mind), this one had me laughing out loud over and over, which I never do, because the comedy was so light hearted and due to the acting rather than the concept.
The film has, as you know, a terrific cast. Ginger Rogers has everything. She is beautiful, she is intelligent, she can sing (no singing though in this film), dance (some nice dancing), be depressed or do comedy. I actually like the chemistry with David Niven better than with Fred Astaire, they make a terrific couple. Niven is funny as hell, and all the supporting cast chimes right in with perfect comic timing. As soon as Charles Coburn showed up on screen I was smiling. The film is full of tiny bits of physical comedy and small gags by actors with only a few seconds of screen time, who all perform like seasoned pros turning simple bits into remarkable, funny-bone tickling scenes.
The comic acting is not stunning, as in the films I mentioned above; it is stylized, theatrical, a bit stiff. It's the style of the film which is not at all realistic, and somehow it works great. Rogers and Niven go through their comic facial expressions slowly and exaggeratedly, so everyone gets it, as if they were telling a story instead of acting it, and it adds to the effect of light heartedness.
The portrayal of the romance, from the initial attraction, through the growing awareness of feelings, is nicely observant and free of cliché. Both the script and the performance capture some of the real moments that happen as two people are drawn together.
The ending is, of course, a completely unbelievable high speed wind-up, fitting the conventions of the time, but I was wishing to follow the relationship along a more extended and realistic track. It would no longer have been a screwball comedy. And there is some absurd stop-motion animation of a mechanical duck where they don't even bother to move the feet properly. This is so blatantly faked that perhaps it is a signal from the director that he has been forced into a trite ending he disowns; or maybe just that the ending is forced by convention and not be taken seriously. It is as if it is Donald Duck who has dictated the final corny scene. It didn't bother me, though, because it is clear that the film would have had to end eventually like that even if it were worked out more believably.
Also someone complained that the landlady should have known the truth about Rogers' character, not recalling that Rogers' had only been her tenant three weeks- short enough to make the plot work out. And I think it is just fine to call a baby it- plus it shows the awkward relationship the single, childless characters have with the baby that suddenly shows up in their life.
If I had to say what it was that was so great about this film, other than seeing Ginger Rogers and David Niven, those two remarkable warm and generous personalities, playing off each other, it would be that the film seems to be filled with love and kindness. Released the year after Kristallnacht shocked the world, it features a saintly very Jewish landlady who comes to the rescue a number of times. There is a six month old baby, who does great work, and Rogers has some lovely scenes with the baby where she seems, briefly, to be genuine. Everyone wrongly thinks Rogers' character is an unwed mother, and there is not the slightest tinge of stigma associated with it throughout the film by any of the many characters that deal with her with kindness, love, acceptance and total respect (if not understanding), and there is also sympathy for the working class pain during the depression. The film totally avoids p retention, it wants to make us laugh and feel good, not to impress us, and it does.
So I give this an 8, but really in terms of the heart it is priceless gem of a film, without a single wrong note, for anyone who loves screwball comedy and the great actors of yesteryear whose like, I am afraid, the business is not likely to produce again.