The Man Who Understood Women

How could an insider like Nunnally Johnson make a movie about Hollywood that's this boring and just plain bad?

Clearly Johnson knows movies, yet he manages to do just about everything wrong with "The Man Who Understood Women," starting with that title. Henry Fonda is disastrously miscast as a maverick, manipulative director, and Cesare Danova could have been replaced by his likeness in granite. Leslie Caron is adorable and she works hard, but "Ann Garantier" is an idea, not a character. As for the telescoped plot, I believe Aaron Spelling himself would have rejected it as too simplistic. There is the occasional witty line-- Johnson's forte is writing, after all-- but there's way too much dialog. Movies are a visual medium, not a verbose one, but Johnson's characters talk incessantly.

As it happens, a number of big films circa 1960 were about movie-making. This is by far the worst. Godard's half-baked "Contempt" is at least cinematic. "Two Weeks In Another Town" has energy, largely thanks to Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor. And then there's "8 1/2." Fellini's masterpiece and Johnson's dud are similarly long-- 135-140 minutes. But "8 ½" is exhilarating, revelatory, inventive, visually rich, and memorable; "The Man Who Understood Women" fails on all counts.

Johnson had a hand in writing more than 70 movies, producing more than 40, and directing 8. After seeing this and "Black Widow," I can only conclude that 8 was at least 2 too many.

When this film began, it looked like one of those films the stars and directors made simply to fulfill their contractual obligations.

However, despite Henry Fonda's occasional forays into sleepwalking his role (especially in his romantic scenes), the overall film was amusing, funny in places and occasionally clever.

It's light entertainment and clearly NEVER intended to rise above that threshold. The warm flame that illumined the production was Leslie Caron. This was a better performance in some ways (IMO) than "American In Paris." It was far more "real" and emotionally intimate than other ones she's done, and without it, this picture would have been a genuine yawner.

Amen to all the negative comments above: really dreadful. I have seen a reference to an original 135-minute running time for this film, which seems to have been reduced to 105 minutes soon after release. I also note that TCM showed a pan-and-scan version on Monday, October 12, without any mention of that by Robert Osborne. Does anyone know more about that matter? Anyway, as someone who has enjoyed almost every other performance by Henry Fonda (especially Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, The Lady Eve, The Ox Bow Incident, Advise and Consent)and Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi, Fanny) I deeply regret that they found themselves involved in this disaster.

Henry Fonda nearly quit the movies after getting a look at this thing, a backstage-Hollywood comedy-drama by Nunnally Johnson, loosely adapted from Romain Gary's novel "The Colors of the Day". Johnson also produced and directed the picture, and therefore deserves most of the blame for what's on the screen. Famous actor-director Fonda becomes smitten with struggling actress Leslie Caron after watching her do a screen-test and quickly turns her into a formidable star. It's at this point in the film where we see fake movie titles zig-zagging across the screen ("Between Heaven and Hell", "Mademoiselle X"), signifying success, and later get a preposterous scene of Fonda shouting down Caron's agents for their lack of direction (isn't he running the whole show?). Fonda compares his lovely discovery to Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, but we just don't see it. Leslie Caron is attractive here, but sullen and with a deep, monotonous voice. When she supposedly wins an Academy Award, we don't see that triumph either (the statue is super-imposed over a starry background--along with MORE zig-zagging movie titles!). Johnson obviously knows the world of show-biz inside-out, but here he gives us the outer-workings of the movie-making world without any of the inner-workings. Caron and Fonda wed, but she quickly tires of his one-track mind--she wants to be a newlywed forever--and runs off with an Air Force Major while in France. Fonda wants the handsome home wrecker dead and orders a hit on him, but changes his mind when he thinks his wife might be killed too, and so chases after the Mutt and Jeff team he's in-cahoots with while dressed as a harlequin clown. It's too silly for words. *1/2 from ****

The best thing I can say about The Man Who Understood Women is it is not the worst comedy I ever saw: Machete, Jewel Robbery, Candy ( 1968), and Damsels In Distress ( all on my 10 worst films list) nor the worst movie I ever saw about Show Business (No Time For Comedy says hi). But It is the worst film of Henry Fonda's career and I despised the movie. The worst part? Fonda in clown makeup which is more cringe worthy ( and longer) then Octopussy with James Bond in clown makeup. On to Leslie Caron. I must admit I never got what other people saw in Leslie Caron: There are Frenchwomen so much more beautiful and better actresses ( Sophie Marceau, Catherine Deneuve, Denise Darcel and Julie Delpy to name a few), but here she is at her worst. Why? Her constant crying throughout this movie is sickening, which is why I had to fast forward through half the movie. Did I forget to mention, there is not one character ( especially Fonda and Caron) that you can like ( or even care about)? While it is not the worst movie I ever saw ( the ones I mentioned earlier plus Reality Bites and Walk On The Wild Side are worse, it it still makes my 10 worst films list and although I cannot rate it as no stars ( the minimum is 1), it still deserves 0 stars. 0/10 stars.