Busman's Honeymoon

Haunted Honeymoon (1940)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

British film from MGM has Lord Peter Wimsey (Robert Montgomery) marrying mystery writer Harriet Vane (Constance Cummings) but their honeymoon is very short as they investigate a murder together. If you look at the title and are expecting some sort of supernatural film then it's best to get that out of your mind. After viewing this film I started to look around and read some other reviews and it seems that the majority of them were negative, although very few were as negative as my thoughts on the film. To me this was one of those films where as soon as something happens it hits your eyes, travels to your brain and then your brain forgets what you just saw in the matter of seconds. I really can't remember too many films where what was going on was simply traveling past me simply because of how uninterested I was in anything going on. I think there are a couple major problems with this picture but the main one is Montgomery. There's no question that he was a fine actor but this here has to be one of his worst performances if not the worst. I think to say he was miscast would be an understatement because it's clear that he was just the wrong person for this part. Perhaps had the film stayed closer to its source material, the play Busman's Honeymoon, then the actor could have done more with it. This film version goes for more romantic charms than mystery and the actor just suffers the entire time. Cummings really isn't any better and the two lack any real chemistry. Another major problem is that the director just never makes anything interesting happen on the screen in terms of style, energy or anything else that you can think of. HAUNTED HONEYMOON is a real snoozer from start to finish.

As the other comments make clear, this is not a bad film. One of MGM's British-made films, it has several good moments, and lots of good performances. Its problem is that it makes the ultimately wrong decision to play down the mystery elements in favour of the romantic comedy. It could have been a marvellous comedy thriller, but instead looks more like a pale imitation of the great romantic screwballs of the thirties, or the fag end of the cycle. Montgomery and Cummings' opening scene reminds one of William Powell and Myrna Loy opening Christmas presents in The Thin Man, or indeed Montgomery's own opening scene with Carole Lombard in Mr and Mrs Smith. The two beautiful, funny, talented people sail brilliantly and wittily through life, with their perfect marriage (explicitly announced to be so), not taking themselves too seriously, not afraid to take a pratfall now and then ... you know the drill. And, of course, we as viewers are supposed to assume that Robert Montgomery and Constance Cummings, by extension, are also such wonderful beings.

So the picture is actually an hour old before we get going with the murder. We have had the clues front-loaded, interspersed with the comedy and romance, whereas in the book Wimsey pieces together the clues from his interrogations. The solution of the mystery ends up as a total afterthought, Montgomery casually piecing together the fiendish plot, and the film sloppily omits to give us any actual proof that that was how the crime was done.

And, to coin a phrase, why oh why oh why did anyone think that suave New Yorker Montgomery could be Lord Peter Wimsey, whose archetypal English "silly ass" manner concealed a brilliant brain? Ian Carmichael was much nearer the mark in the 70s TV series. Montgomery is a very pleasing screen presence, but an English nobleman he is not.

As usual it is the character actors that steal the scenes. Leslie Banks, in my humble, could do very little wrong, and doesn't here. Joan Kemp-Welch is excellent in what could be the very tedious role of Aggie Twitterton. Robert Newton gives an early eye-rolling performance complete with dodgy West country accent. Frank Pettingell is on good form, especially in the chimney sweeping scene, where he divests himself of a seemingly infinite number of sweaters. Googie Withers is great as the sexy barmaid. Roy Emerton is always good value. But the real star of the show, as other comments have also pointed out, is the old actor-manager Seymour Hicks, showing the youngsters how it is done.

So, much to please, much too long, more thrills needed.

Taking the place of Robert Donat who pulled out at the last minute is Robert Montgomery whom we read happened to be in Great Britain and was rushed by MGM into Haunted Honeymoon. Montgomery plays the aristocratic British detective Lord Peter Wimsey who is married to Agatha Christie like mystery writer Harriet Vane played by Constance Cummings. They make a great team in the mystery solving game. And it's a game to Montgomery because without it he'd be one of those P.G. Wodehouse silly aristocratic types. Although he did serve in the Great War where he acquired batman now turned butler Seymour Hicks.

Montgomery and Cummings have just married and are on the way to spend their honeymoon at the childhood home of Cummings. The new owner having rented it to them.

The new owner ain't a popular guy and he's killed and body found the next day and it's like the Wimseys just can't get away from homicide. It's like Nick and Nora Charles solving mysteries as an afterthought.

This film was adapted from a play by Wimsey creator Dorothy Sayers. Lord Wimsey never quite made it here as a popular character the way Agatha Christie's sleuth characters have. Perhaps Donat would have been better in the lead.

In any event the Wimseys seem more like Jonathan and Jennifer Hart than anyone else. Like Wimsey, Jonathan Hart solves mysteries as an afterthought.

Good, but not a great film from MGM's British studio.

Constance and Robert have a great deal of fun with this film although he is not my perfect idea of Lord Wimsey although he has a certain ironic charm. Hot on the heels of the great Night Must Fall, he lets his hair down here to ham it up a bit, but the locals are a match for anyone and everyone. This shows the British idea of eccentricity at its bizarre best.

A titled amateur detective & his mystery-writing bride spend a BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON when a murdered corpse is discovered in their new Devonshire home.

Beginning with its first release in 1938 and for several years thereafter, MGM maintained a sister studio in England. In this way she could take advantage of the wealth of British acting talent available, and also get around the UK restriction on the import of foreign films. American stars were often sent over to take the top roles, an increasingly dicey maneuver as the Atlantic became dangerous with Nazi U-boats. BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON (called HAUNTED HONEYMOON in the USA) was one of those films.

BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, while not unpleasant to look at, is not without its flaws. The mystery isn't all that enthralling, but the main difficulty seems to lie in Robert Montgomery's portrayal of Lord Peter Wimsey. It just doesn't click. This very fine actor made a career from playing suave, sophisticated characters, which Lord Peter should be, but you can never for a moment forget that this is only Robert Montgomery playing a role; nor for an instant do you believe that this is Lord Peter come to life. And the American accent surely doesn't help, either.

The lovely Constance Cummings, as Lady Harriet, suffers much the same fate.

A fine gaggle of British actors, including Robert Newton, Leslie Banks & Googie Withers, appear in supporting roles. But the real joy in watching this film is reveling in the rare opportunity to see the marvelous old actor Sir Seymour Hicks, who portrays Bunter the butler. Sir Seymour (1871-1949) had been one of the great actor-managers & dramatists of the turn of the century. With his plumy voice & broad, impish face, he easily steals scene after scene with his stagy intonations & mannerisms.

It would take the passage of several decades & the arrival of a completely new medium - television - before Dorothy L. Sayer's hero received superlative interpretations from actors Ian Carmichael & Edward Petherbridge.