I expected a much funnier, faster-paced comedy.
The leads are wonderful at comedy - Joel McCrea in the humorous parts of say, Foreign Correspondent is great. Charles Coburn is wonderful here. And Jean Arthur is so very deft, her voice capable of such expression.
Yet I found much of the movie formulaic (the obligatory trip by everyone to the police station or the courthouse that we saw in dozens of movies from the 1930s: the oaf of a fiancé, the wall or curtain separating those in love as they speak to each other and the camera zooms in, the crowd of unlikely people cheering them on ...).
This is very slow, and the romance consists primarily in just putting the two leads together and having them speak s l o w l y while deliberately looking away from each other. Aside from Joel McCrea's looks, for the life of me, I cannot think of a single reason why an engaged woman falls in love with him in a few days. He says virtually nothing, he does virtually nothing. The fiancé must be made oafish in order to show McCrea as the only alternative.
The gags are often repeated and belabored too long.
The main characters seem to either be silent or speak at half speed through much of the movie.
So much of this movie feels stolen - and some doesn't make sense.
*** SPOILERS **** Long after McCrea and Arthur have spoken of their love for one another, and McCrea has proposed - why is it that when the oafish fiancé is gone, Arthur and McCrea must pretend for the next 26 hours that their wedding is a mere formality to be followed by annulment? I don't get it at all. It makes no sense. It just seems to be put in there so that the director can AGAIN delay the consummation of their love. But it's idiotic.
**** SPOILERS **** I blame George Stevens. The basic plot is fine for a wonderful screwball comedy - but this movie lacks comic flair in direction, lacks the imagination for the small bits that a viewer loves to see in a comedy, and its scenes that run too long.
Compare this with, say, the wonderful charming memorable nonsense in breathtaking comedies that had come BEFORE it: e.g., The Awful Truth (from which this movie steals much), Midnight, One Hour With You, Hands Across the Table, It Happened One Night (from which this movie steals much), The Smiling Lieutenant, The Princess Comes Across, His Girl Friday, Dinner at 8:00, Love Me Tonight, Topper, 5th Avenue Girl, The Gay Divorcée, Bachelor Mother, Easy Living, True Confession, Roberta, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Top Hat, Trouble in Paradise, You Can't Take it With You, Private Lives, My Man Godfrey, Bringing Up Baby -- -- and you'll agree that they're all superior. It's a pity because I'd love to have loved this.
This is a well-made but ponderous copy of far better comedies.
The leads are wonderful at comedy - Joel McCrea in the humorous parts of say, Foreign Correspondent is great. Charles Coburn is wonderful here. And Jean Arthur is so very deft, her voice capable of such expression.
Yet I found much of the movie formulaic (the obligatory trip by everyone to the police station or the courthouse that we saw in dozens of movies from the 1930s: the oaf of a fiancé, the wall or curtain separating those in love as they speak to each other and the camera zooms in, the crowd of unlikely people cheering them on ...).
This is very slow, and the romance consists primarily in just putting the two leads together and having them speak s l o w l y while deliberately looking away from each other. Aside from Joel McCrea's looks, for the life of me, I cannot think of a single reason why an engaged woman falls in love with him in a few days. He says virtually nothing, he does virtually nothing. The fiancé must be made oafish in order to show McCrea as the only alternative.
The gags are often repeated and belabored too long.
The main characters seem to either be silent or speak at half speed through much of the movie.
So much of this movie feels stolen - and some doesn't make sense.
*** SPOILERS **** Long after McCrea and Arthur have spoken of their love for one another, and McCrea has proposed - why is it that when the oafish fiancé is gone, Arthur and McCrea must pretend for the next 26 hours that their wedding is a mere formality to be followed by annulment? I don't get it at all. It makes no sense. It just seems to be put in there so that the director can AGAIN delay the consummation of their love. But it's idiotic.
**** SPOILERS **** I blame George Stevens. The basic plot is fine for a wonderful screwball comedy - but this movie lacks comic flair in direction, lacks the imagination for the small bits that a viewer loves to see in a comedy, and its scenes that run too long.
Compare this with, say, the wonderful charming memorable nonsense in breathtaking comedies that had come BEFORE it: e.g., The Awful Truth (from which this movie steals much), Midnight, One Hour With You, Hands Across the Table, It Happened One Night (from which this movie steals much), The Smiling Lieutenant, The Princess Comes Across, His Girl Friday, Dinner at 8:00, Love Me Tonight, Topper, 5th Avenue Girl, The Gay Divorcée, Bachelor Mother, Easy Living, True Confession, Roberta, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Top Hat, Trouble in Paradise, You Can't Take it With You, Private Lives, My Man Godfrey, Bringing Up Baby -- -- and you'll agree that they're all superior. It's a pity because I'd love to have loved this.
This is a well-made but ponderous copy of far better comedies.