IT'S LOVE I'M AFTER

Bette Davis and Leslie Howard

IT'S LOVE I'M AFTER (1937). Director: Archie Mayo. Colorized.  

Basil Underwood (Leslie Howard of Pygmalion) and his battling lover and acting partner Joyce Arden (Bette Davis) are appearing in a production of Romeo and Juliet (which they aren't very good in) when starstruck heiress Marcia West (Olivia de Havilland) comes to his dressing room dripping with adoration. Her fiance, Henry (Patric Knowles of Five Came Back), begs Basil to come out to the West estate and disillusion Marcia, act the cad, so that she will fully belong to him. (Apparently he's unaware that Marcia did not expect to see Basil again). With his faithful retainer Digges (Eric Blore of Swiss Miss) in tow, Basil arrives at the estate and puts his plan into motion -- only everything he thinks up backfires on him! Then Joyce shows up and is told by Marcia that she must step aside, Basil belongs to her. Indeed?

de Havilland with Howard

It's Love I'm After is a delightful screwball comedy that has a funny script and situations and some wonderful performances. Howard throws himself into the spirit of the thing from the very beginning and is a lovable egomaniac and ham. Davis, generally too intense for comedy, is fine in this as the angry woman whose long-awaited wedding to her paramour never quite seems to take place. Olivia de Havilland is also excellent, and she gets fine support from George Barbier as her consistently befuddled father and Knowles as the eternally unamused fiance. Bonita Granville and Spring Byington add to the fun as members of the West household, and Eric Blore nearly walks off with the movie as the wise and long-suffering Digges, who excels at bird calls. 

Verdict: Cute picture. ***. 

THE HALF-NAKED TRUTH

Lee Tracy and Lupe Velez

THE HALF-NAKED TRUTH (1932). Director: Gregory La Cava.  

Carnival Barker Jimmy Bates (Lee Tracy), dancer Teresita (Lupe Velez) and the portly Achilles (Eugene Pallette) all work for the same struggling outfit. Jimmy is convinced he'd make a better press agent than the one employed by the carnival, and he concocts a scheme for Teresita that backfires, forcing the trio to flee on the first train to New York. There Teresita is rechristened "Princess Exotica" from Turkey and ensconced in a suite at the Ritz. Using his wiles, Jimmy is able to secure Teresita a spot in the latest show put on by producer Merle Farrell (Frank Morgan), but Jimmy decides, using even more outrageous schemes, to make a star out of hotel employee Gladys (Shirley Chambers) when he thinks Teresita and Farrell are pushing him out.  

Lupe

The Half-Naked Truth is a cute, if minor, comedy with excellent performances from the entire cast, which includes Franklin Pangborn as the hotel manager and Asta from The Thin Man in a butcher shop cameo. Velez, who is sassy and spirited, later starred in the Mexican Spitfire series before committing suicide at 36. Her bouncy "Carpenter" number on stage is a highlight of the picture. The film's composer, Max Steiner, appears as the conductor during this sequence. The following year Tracy played another press agent bedeviling Jean Harlow in Bombshell. 

Verdict: Some very amusing stuff in here. **3/4. 

THE FORTUNE

Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson

THE FORTUNE 

(1975). Director: Mike Nichols. 

In the 1920's Nicky Wilson (Warren Beatty) wants to marry heiress Freddie Bigard (Stockard Channing) for her money, but his divorce from his wife hasn't come through. He importunes zany buddy Oscar Sullivan (Jack Nicholson) to marry the lady so he won't get in trouble over the Mann Act, which prohibits moving a woman across a state line for "immoral purposes." The three set up housekeeping in a cottage where Nicky pretends to be Oscar's brother. The two men both vie for the charms of Freddie, but then decide they will have a better chance of getting her money if the woman is dead. The two dim-bulbs then hatch a plot ... 

Our "heroes" with Stockard Channing

Old-time screwball comedies, of which The Fortune is an imitation, often featured "heroes," such as Groucho Marx, who were reprobates and scallawags, decided con artists, but Nicky and Oscar are essentially sociopaths who have no hesitation in deciding to off the woman who loves them. Admittedly, Freddie can be shrill and overbearing, and might be considered an unsympathetic victim. A bigger problem is that director Mike Nichols again uses the long take approach, when comedies like these need expert cutting and pacing. A manic three-way fight sequence doesn't work at all. In spite of that, The Fortune is frequently amusing -- thanks to the performances, with Nicholson taking top honors -- and has at least one hilarious scene set on an airplane. While the film is farcical enough not to be offensive, it perhaps needed to be even more farcical. 

I suppose there are those who will argue that underneath the comical tone The Fortune is about cynical human nature, women who can't accept reality when it comes to their men, how relationships are instantly disposable when things go awry, and so on. But I think The Fortune doesn't really have that much on its mind. I shouldn't like the film at all, but I confess I found it quite entertaining. But, yes, it could have been a lot better. Stockard Channing gives it the Old College Try, but for better or worse this is the boys' show. 

Verdict: For once Nicholson is the character he plays instead of himself. ***. 

MEXICAN SPITFIRE'S BLESSED EVENT

Leon Errol, Lupe Velez, and Walter Reed

MEXICAN SPITFIRE'S BLESSED EVENT (1943). Director: Leslie Goodwins.

"First let me have some other particulars and then we'll discuss sex."

This is the eighth and final entry in the "Mexican Spitfire" films and Dennis (Walter Reed) is still  trying to get Lord Epping (Leon Errol) to sign that contract! It's amazing that while Blessed Event doesn't depart in many ways from the usual formula -- you know that at one point Uncle Matt (Leon Errol  again) will dress up like Lord Epping and confusion will run riot -- it still manages to be pretty hilarious in spite of it. In this installment Dennis and company get the mistaken notion that his wife, Carmelita (Lupe Velez), has somehow given birth to a baby -- without, so far as anybody knows, being pregnant --  but the "blessed event" she refers to is actually her cat having kittens. Since Lord Epping will not sign that ever-demanding contract until he sees the baby, this presents quite a problem for the Lindsays, including the always reliable Uncle Matt. Then there's Dennis' business rival, George Sharp (Hugh Beaumont), who does his level best to prove Carmelita is putting on a diabolical baby act. Velez and Errol are in their usual top form, as are Elisabeth Risdon as Dennis' formidable aunt; Lydia Bilbrook as the deadpan Lady Epping; and Reed as the charming if discombobulated "father," Dennis. Hugh Beaumont is also excellent as the conniving Sharp and has a great scene with Errol in the bar (where else?). There's some inventive business in this, a few risque lines, and amusingly bizarre situations, and the laughs keep coming at a rapid pace.These are fine comic actors at the top of their game.

Verdict: Arguably the best and funniest of the Mexican Spitfire films. ***.

BRINGING UP BABY

BRINGING UP BABY (1938). Director: Howard Hawks.

After sixty-seven years this hilarious film arguably remains the best and funniest “screwball” comedy ever made. Katharine Hepburn is an heiress who is instantly attracted to a somewhat stuffy but handsome and likable scientist (Cary Grant) whose life she turns upside down (on the eve of his marriage to a cold fish, no less) as she not only tries to win him over but deal with a tamed leopard named Baby who was dropped off at her door. Grant is putting together the bones of a dinosaur and is supposed to take particular care of a certain specimen which winds up being buried in an enormous backyard by Hepburn's little dog. If that's not enough, a dangerous leopard escapes from a zoo and is mistaken for Hepburn's charming pet. Add Hepburn's peppery relative (May Robson), an alleged big game hunter (Charlie Ruggles) and other eccentrics to the mix and you've got a classic that sparkles and delights from start to finish. While the material may seem more geared to Lucille Ball, Hepburn gives a wonderful, interestingly nuanced performance, and Grant puts his fine comic gifts on display throughout. Howard Hawks keeps things at a brisk pace. While I've never belonged to the school of major Hawks' admirers, it has to be said that this is one of his best pictures, far more memorable than Rio Bravo and others of its ilk.

Verdict: Great! ***1/2