The Magnificent Dope

Peter Gibbons, meet Thadeus "call me Tad" Page. Selling life insurance may have been the 1940's equivalent of a cubicle job, but in any case Tad Page doesn't take to it much better than Peter Gibbons did in "Office Space", and they both appreciate fishing. Henry Fonda is the perfect personality for demonstrating the value of well-timed laziness. Don Ameche was either Alexander Graham Bell or a pleasant schemer in his films (until "Trading Places" at least) and his Dwight Dawson-ambitious-man-with-a-gimmick is nicely drawn here. I also appreciated the subtle manner in which the tune "Lazy Bones" was woven unobtrusively into the background during Fonda's scenes. Watch for it on TCM; worth your time.

A refreshing, funny film about a different kind of American dream - laziness.

Dwight Dawson (Don Ameche), peddling his success classes, launches a contest to find the laziest man in America. The plan is to turn the winner into an aggressive, driven success through his class and draw thousands of enrollees. The winner is Tad Page, beautifully portrayed by Henry Fonda. He's a happy man who feels that, though he's not rich, he has everything - he just wants the prize money to buy a fire engine for his town. He has no interest in taking Dawson's class. Then he falls in love - with Dawson's girlfriend (Lynn Bari).

This is a delightful movie about a man who has the true secret of life and is able to impart it to many he meets. As the original post indicated, it's a great life lesson and something to think about.

The cast - Fonda, Ameche, Bari, Edward Everett Horton, are just great. The birthday party, during which Ameche and Horton try to keep Tad from realizing that Bari is Ameche's girlfriend - was especially funny. Highly recommended.

Yet he is, in this movie, a charming and sly country vs city tale. Fonda is the title character. He is chosen as a prime loser who can take Don Ameche's positive thinking course: If he can come through it, the cynical Ameche and his sidekicks reason, anyone can. And others will try.

Edward Everett Horton is one of these sidekicks, as is Bari, his mink-wearing secretary.

Fonda is from rural Vermont and teaches everyone in New York a thing or two himself. He wins over a famous financier, who promptly retires to enjoy life. He shows all and sundry how to relax. And he pines for Bari.

It's a cute idea, which twists and turns several times before its ending. The premise resembles a far less cynical and cruel "Curtain Call" -- which is an infinitely better, less conflicted, movie.

A rather run-of-the-mill Twentieth Century Fox film from 1942 directed with his usual competence by Fox staff director Walter Lang, worth watching if only to be reminded that young Henry Fonda was as excellent a comic actor as he was a dramatic one. Here, he plays the country bumpkin, a fall guy from Vermont who gets taken by city slickers: slick Don Ameche in the Donald Trump role and his cynical sidekick Edward Everett Horton. This was Lynn Bari's big chance, and although she is extremely attractive and thoroughly professional in everything she does, she isn't very convincing as the cold-hearted femme fatale who falls for the good guy with a heart of gold, a role that Barbara Stanwyck did so believably with Fonda a year earlier in Preston Sturges' classic, The Lady Eve, and Jean Arthur played twice for Frank Capra. Lynn Bari, thoroughly reliable, went on working for another twenty five years in less demanding roles. Only goes to prove that some actors, good as they were, just didn't have that rare undefinable something called star quality. As this film shows, Fonda had it from the beginning.

If you've read my reviews, you know I have a saying about Henry Fonda: he's gorgeous until he opens his mouth. Well, folks, I'm happy to report that there's a movie where he's so cute his winy voice just doesn't matter: The Magnificent Dope. He's absolutely adorable!

Don Ameche plays the head of a success school that's about to go out of business. He doesn't have any students and he's in debt to his eyeballs, but his faithful sidekick Edward Everett Horton and his patient girlfriend Lynn Bari help him cook up a scheme to gain national publicity: set up a contest to find the biggest loser and turn him into a success. Henry Fonda wins the prize. He's an unemployed, loafing fisherman from a small town. But the only trouble is, he's happy being a flop! He loves being lazy and has no interest in becoming ambitious. Don sends his girlfriend to motivate Hank, but she does too good of a job...

Even though he's supposed to be a terrible coach with horrid advice, some of the things Don says are very funny and quite true. "Wives seldom believe in insurance. Widows always do." He emphasizes the importance of a clean-cut appearance, a firm handshake, and a confident smile. So even though he's not exactly the hero in the story, you're still rooting for him to have a happy ending. Not as much as you're on Team Fonda, though. Who would have thought the normally wooden Henry would be able to act so naturally goofy?

With cute, peppy silver screen music by four great composers, Emil Newman, Leigh Harline, Cyril J. Mockridge, and David Raksin, and an adorable ending, this forgotten gem is not to be missed. It's by far my favorite Henry Fonda movie - if this were the first movie I'd seen him in, I'd love him forever. What a cutie pie!