Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) - film review

Vienna, 1938.  An American socialite Katherine Butt-Smith – in truth a one-time stripped named Katie O’Hara – is about to get married to the influential Baron Von Luber.  Suspecting that her husband-to-be is a Nazi sympathiser, reporter Pat O’Toole tries to interview Katie, but is frightened off by Von Uber.  When Katie and the Baron move on to Prague, Pat follows and learns that Von Luber is selling dud weaponry to the Czech military.  Shortly before Czechoslovakia falls to the Nazis, the Baron and Katie move on again, this time to Poland.  Having learned the truth about her husband, Katie flees to Paris, via several other European countries, with Pat.  As the French capital falls to the Germans, Katie allows herself to be recruited as an American secret agent, much to the annoyance of Pat, who only wants to head back home and live a quite life...

Director Leo McCarey and actor Cary Grant followed up their first collaboration, the hit comedy The Awful Truth (1937), with this convoluted wartime comedy-drama in which Grant is paired, somewhat unsuccessfully, with Ginger Rogers.  The film is entertaining enough and delivers some good laughs but is weighed down by its wartime propaganda messages, which have about as much subtlety as a poster with the words "Fight Hitler or he will eat your babies raw".   Rogers’ limited skill as an actress has never been more apparent but Grant makes up for this deficit, turning in another of his delectably smooth performances.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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