A light atmosphere with little to nothing funny has Melvyn Douglas once again in William Powell territory as a troubled musician whose wife dumps him, opening up the field for a new woman in his life. Ellen Drew's the wanna be ex, with Ruth Hussey the new lady in his life, Charles Coburn as Hussey's dad and John Hubbard as her brother. With part of the movie on a cruise ship and the rest on shore, this film never seems to achieve where it wants to be, what it wants to be, and how its going to get there.
Another obscure stage comedy seemingly defused for the screen, this is disappointing considering how long I've waited to find it. The cast is outstanding, but the magic is missing. Even Hussey's drunk scene is a failure. When Coburn, one of the great scene stealers of all time, doesn't get the remotest sound reaction resembling a laugh, something has to be wrong. It's obvious to me that what ultimately killed the screwball comedy as a genre was an overabundance of mediocre scripts, co-stars that lacked chemistry, and a small percentage of ones that actually worked. For every "Philadelphia Story" there were five like this, and ultimately, audiences became bored and simply stayed away.
Another obscure stage comedy seemingly defused for the screen, this is disappointing considering how long I've waited to find it. The cast is outstanding, but the magic is missing. Even Hussey's drunk scene is a failure. When Coburn, one of the great scene stealers of all time, doesn't get the remotest sound reaction resembling a laugh, something has to be wrong. It's obvious to me that what ultimately killed the screwball comedy as a genre was an overabundance of mediocre scripts, co-stars that lacked chemistry, and a small percentage of ones that actually worked. For every "Philadelphia Story" there were five like this, and ultimately, audiences became bored and simply stayed away.