Everybody Does It

This is one of the best post war comedies. The performance of Paul Douglas is perfect against Linda Darnell. It has been said that Celeste Holm had to learn how not to sing, in order that she carry out this role.

If you liked the modern comedy The Fourth Tenor, you'll find the 1949 opera flick very funny. The ending is terrible, but it's entertaining up until the last ten minutes. Big-hearted teddy bear Paul Douglas plays an opera singer!

He starts the film completely in love with his wife, Celeste Holm. She has a deluded dream to be an opera singer herself, so Paul rents her a concert hall and bribes business acquaintances to fill up the seats. He buys her dozens of roses for her opening night, and even confronts a critic who refuses who write a review. Isn't he a dream? Yet, when Celeste finds out his secret (that he himself has a beautiful operatic singing voice), she attacks him with a golf club. Throughout the movie, she's made out to be a pretty terrible wife, so I don't know why he was so in love with her.

For those of us who prefer to see him paired up with Linda Darnell, good news: she's in this movie! She plays another opera singer (if you don't like that type of singing, don't even think of renting this movie), and she's impressed by Paul's devotion to his wife. She hears him sing accidentally and immediately wants him for her next leading man. So, for all the lack of chemistry between Paul and Celeste, he and Linda make up for it. They're such a great screen couple, you'll wish they got married in real life.

Parts of this movie are very funny, especially for Paul Douglas fan. I really couldn't stand Celeste Holm, and the message put forth in the end made me cringe. But if you want to rewrite the story and just enjoy the comedy, I won't tell anyone.

Fox's remake of their own 1939 comedy "Wife, Husband and Friend" (both versions produced and written by Nunnally Johnson, working from James M. Cain's story "Two Can Sing") is a faltering marital comedy which generally fails to stay the course. Paul Douglas is wonderful as a newly-discovered baritone singer who ends up on the concert stage under an alias, however society wife Celeste Holm (who fancies herself a professional soprano) treats her working-stiff spouse like a cuckold, and allows her pretentious mother to openly patronize him. When Holm finally hears Douglas sing at a party, she becomes furious and leaves him; Douglas' response is to get drunk and disappear for four days. Johnson certainly had the makings of great comic material here--and the perfect leading man in Douglas--but he allows the principals to come apart too easily, and spends too much underlining Holm's irrational nature. As such, the finale (meant to bring the marrieds back together) is self-defeating. **1/2 from ****

Paul Douglas is magnificent communicating his frustrations trying to placate his headstrong and self-deluded wife -- portrayed marvelously by Celeste Holm -- who persists in pursuing singing endeavors despite everybody's best efforts to let her know that she just doesn't quite have the talent. Enter sumptuous diva Linda Darnell with designs on ruggedly handsome (!?!) Douglas -- especially when she learns, to everyone's surprise, that he has a powerful voice. Charles Coburn and Lucile Watson lead an immensely talented supporting cast. The script delivers sophisticated yet rapid-fire wit while the direction conveys all the nuances perfectly, but still manages to deliver a couple of belly-laughs. I highly recommend watching Everybody Does It.

Although I am a fan of movies from the 1940's and 1950's I somehow had never seen this film before. This is one of those delightful comedy sleepers like "Champagne for Caesar". I happened to see it listed on the DIRECTV TCM channel view-on-demand list and downloaded it to my DVR via the internet for viewing.

The cast performance is excellent from the major players down to the minor characters.

My favorite scene is when Mrs. Blair titters and flits about as she informs the party guests that her son-in-law is going to give a singing performance.