Film Review
Howard Hawks was one of Hollywood's most successful and
versatile directors. His achievements include not
only groundbreaking thrillers
-
Scarface (1932) and
The Big Sleep (1946) - and high
class westerns such as
Red River
(1959); he also helmed 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, an 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 only a striking 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. Sheridan went down with pneumonia,
Grant suffered from a bout of hepatitis and Hawks had a severe attack of
hives, all of which happy incident resulted in production being closed down for three months.
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 up to the scratch of Howard Hawks's earlier comedies, but
I Was a Male War Bride offers entertainment aplenty, even
if the decision to cast Cary Grant as a Frenchman is so mind-bogglingly weird as to be
almost surreal.
© James Travers 2008
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Next Howard Hawks film:
The Thing from Another World (1951)
Film Synopsis
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...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.