Summary
In the immediate aftermath of WWII, Henri Rochard, an officer in the
French secret service, is sent to the German town of Bad Nauheim to
track down a lens polisher named Schindler and persuade him to work for
the Allies. Against his wishes, he is accompanied by an American
army lieutenant, Catherine Gates, who still harbours a grudge after
their last assignment together. In the course of their ensuing
adventures, Henri and Catherine manage to patch up their differences
and decide to get married. Unfortunately, Catherine must return
to the United States and the only way Henri can go with her is by
applying for entry to her country as her
bride...
Review
Although he is perhaps best remembered for his groundbreaking thrillers
- Scarface (1932) and The Big Sleep (1946) – and high
class westerns such as Rio Bravo
(1959), Howard Hawks also directed some of Hollywood’s best screwball
comedies, including Bringing Up Baby
(1938). I Was a Male War
Bride is one of Hawks’s later comedies, a very enjoyable battle
of the sexes farce in which a hapless Cary Grant suffers no end of
humiliations when he tries to get the better of Ann Sheridan and US
military bureaucracy. The film was inspired by a true (but hard
to believe) story that appeared in the Readers’ Digest.
The film was shot on location in Germany (Hawks’s first shoot in Europe), which brings not just a sense of realism but also a distinct mood of post-war relief tempered by the realisation of the nightmare the world has just lived through. The downbeat tone may also have been influenced by the fact that many of the cast and production team - including the lead actors – fell ill during the location shoot because of the extreme cold weather.
The humour may be far more restrained than in earlier screwball comedies, but there are some brilliant visual gags and the crackling dialogue between the two lead performers could hardly be improved on. It may not be Howard Hawks’s most worthy film, but I Was a Male War Bride is unquestionably one of his most entertaining, even if the decision to cast Cary Grant as a Frenchman is so mind-bogglingly ludicrous as to be almost surreal.
The film was shot on location in Germany (Hawks’s first shoot in Europe), which brings not just a sense of realism but also a distinct mood of post-war relief tempered by the realisation of the nightmare the world has just lived through. The downbeat tone may also have been influenced by the fact that many of the cast and production team - including the lead actors – fell ill during the location shoot because of the extreme cold weather.
The humour may be far more restrained than in earlier screwball comedies, but there are some brilliant visual gags and the crackling dialogue between the two lead performers could hardly be improved on. It may not be Howard Hawks’s most worthy film, but I Was a Male War Bride is unquestionably one of his most entertaining, even if the decision to cast Cary Grant as a Frenchman is so mind-bogglingly ludicrous as to be almost surreal.
© James Travers 2008
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Useful links
- Best French films of 2011
- Best French films of the 2000s
- Best of the French New Wave
- Best of French film comedy
- The best 100 French films
- The most successful French films
- Great French filmmakers
Related links
- The best American romantic comedies
- Other American films of the 1940s
- The best American films of the 1940s
- Other American romantic comedies
- Biography and films of Howard Hawks
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Credits
- Director: Howard Hawks
- Script: Charles Lederer, Leonard Spigelgass, Hagar Wilde, Henri Rochard
- Photo: Osmond Borradaile, Norbert Brodine
- Music: Cyril J. Mockridge
- Cast: Cary Grant (Capt. Henri Rochard), Ann Sheridan (Lt. Catherine Gates), Marion Marshall (Lt. Kitty Lawrence), Randy Stuart (Lt. Eloise Billings), Bill Neff (Capt. Jack Ramsey)
- Country: USA
- Language: English / French
- Runtime: 105 min; B&W
- Aka: You Can’t Sleep Here; Aller coucher ailleurs
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Comedy / Romance






