robert-mulqueen
Joined Mar 2005
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Reviews6
robert-mulqueen's rating
I watched most of this 1957 film on Turner Classic tonight. I had never heard of it. It promised to be a "four Navy buddies on shore leave and assorted pranks" flick, particularly with the thought that it featured Jayne Mansfield. I figured that Cary Grant really needed to pay alimony. However, two things about the film kept me from turning it off. The first was Suzy Parker. The second was very much unexpected and it was a ribbon through the screenplay which began to shine in Grant's lines telling off the ship building tycoon played by Leif Ericson. While I realize that the film was made twelve years after the close of the Second World War, this was no sentimental script which appealed to an audience's passions for a war in progress. Grant's Navy aviator was sick and tired of the war, of combat, of the blood and gore, of picking up after the guy next to him is blown into twelve pieces. Grant's character again displays a cynicism about the war when he tells a whopper to an inquiring reporter in a nightclub.
The screenplay was even more remarkable when you realize that this movie was released in 1957....just on the late fringe of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare.
It is a tepid film at best, but a tip of the hat to Cary Grant for portraying a realistic warrior who conveys that he is sick and tired of the gore of war.
The screenplay was even more remarkable when you realize that this movie was released in 1957....just on the late fringe of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare.
It is a tepid film at best, but a tip of the hat to Cary Grant for portraying a realistic warrior who conveys that he is sick and tired of the gore of war.
I saw this film for the first time tonight on Turner Classic Movies. As a fan of films of this period, I had never heard of it. As a fan of Rosalind Russell, I was surprised that I had never seen it mentioned in essays or articles about her career.
Brian Ahearn was OK, but Russell is her comic best here, much as she is, of course, in "His Girl Friday".
Another spark in this comedy is the always reliable Robert Benchley as Brian Ahearn's attorney and friend of many years. He is vintage Benchley, with the droll line uttered with a poker face, a sly double take, and more than one sequence involving snoring and talking in his sleep....the sort of comedic genius which Benchley is remembered for.
Very enjoyable.
Brian Ahearn was OK, but Russell is her comic best here, much as she is, of course, in "His Girl Friday".
Another spark in this comedy is the always reliable Robert Benchley as Brian Ahearn's attorney and friend of many years. He is vintage Benchley, with the droll line uttered with a poker face, a sly double take, and more than one sequence involving snoring and talking in his sleep....the sort of comedic genius which Benchley is remembered for.
Very enjoyable.
