My Life with Caroline (1941)

Isn't Romantic Comedy redundant?
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pktrekgirl
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My Life with Caroline (1941)

Post by pktrekgirl »

Okay...so I'm semi-obsessed with Ronald Colman. :P

Anyway, I recorded and watched this film last night, as it is one of the only Ronald Colman talkies I did not previously own.

And I thought it was a cute film.

Admittedly most of the fun is due to Ronald Colman's unbelievable charm. But I thought it was a cute film nonetheless, about a publisher called Antony (Ronald Colman) whose wife is so flighty that she falls in love with pretty much any other man who crosses her path...and always has to be brought back to sanity by her adoring and incredibly patient husband, who finds her antics more amusing than anything else.

Not really realistic. But then, who cares about realistic when we are talking about one of the most charming men to ever hit the silver screen?

Anyone else see this little flick?
JulieMarch4th
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Post by JulieMarch4th »

Pktrekgirl -- I think this is one of the few Ronald Coleman movies that makes me, um, squirm. Because Coleman is so wasted on that wife! Don't get me started on the old 'empty-headed beauty attracts man with everything going for him' . . .

Methinks I may be taking it too seriously :shock:

ulie
pktrekgirl
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Post by pktrekgirl »

JulieMarch4th wrote:Pktrekgirl -- I think this is one of the few Ronald Coleman movies that makes me, um, squirm. Because Coleman is so wasted on that wife! Don't get me started on the old 'empty-headed beauty attracts man with everything going for him' . . .

Methinks I may be taking it too seriously :shock:
Well, that is certainly true - why keep such a nitwit when you can have anyone you like, right?

But rather than think about that, I just don't think about it too hard at all...and just enjoy Ronald Colman's unending charm.

I just love those bits when he is talking to the camera about her....confident in exactly how it will end...because he knows her 'limitations'.

And there is no doubt about it - she is severely 'limited'. But I try to think of his character as a) a nice guy who loves her anyway; and b) a smart guy who knows how to work her back into the place he desires her to be. And at the end of the day, 'nice' and 'smart' are not bad qualities to have.

I much prefer the character of Antony to some of the milquetoast characters who get stepped on by woman in other films. I've watched a whole string of Henry Fonda pictures lately, for example, were he is a total weenie....and those are more disturbing to me. Antony, in contrast, turns the tables and 'works' her. And I have no objection to her being 'worked' - she has it coming to her.

I think to Antony, it is a game. One that he actually enjoys in a way.

Bleh! Maybe I'm thinking about it too much now! :lol:
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