Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Isn't Romantic Comedy redundant?
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movieman1957
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by movieman1957 »

I'll throw in -

Easy Living
The More The Merrier
It Should Happen To You
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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JackFavell
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by JackFavell »

They should do a husband and wife day on TCM....

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
The Awful Truth
Palm Beach Story
My Favorite Wife
The Thrill of It All
His Girl Friday
Adam's Rib
Raising Arizona (one of my faves which I forgot on the other list)
The Thin Man et al
To Be or Not to Be
Topper
Mr. Blandings
Father of the Bride et al
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by Rita Hayworth »

JackFavell wrote:They should do a husband and wife day on TCM....

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
The Awful Truth
Palm Beach Story
My Favorite Wife
The Thrill of It All
His Girl Friday
Adam's Rib
Raising Arizona (one of my faves which I forgot on the other list)
The Thin Man et al
To Be or Not to Be
Topper
Mr. Blandings
Father of the Bride et al
I would go for that too.
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movieman1957
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by movieman1957 »

"I Met Him In Paris" stars Claudette Colbert, Melvyn Douglas and Robert Young. It tires real hard to be sophisticated and witty but it doesn't really get there. Parts are fun but it just doesn't quite live up to what it wants to be.

Colbert is taking a long anticipated trip to Paris. Soon after arriving she meets up with Douglas and Young. Young falls for her and asks her to go to Switzerland. She goes if they all go. So, they all go. Falling in and out of love and Douglas and Young take turns being best buddies and hating each other. All the while she takes turn fighting them off.

Claudette is always great. Douglas is fine as a sour puss but Young is sort of vanilla. Not bad but his character doesn't do much for me. Directed by Wesley Ruggles it would have been fun to see what it would have been with Leo McCarey or Mitchell Leisen had worked on it.

Okay for fans of the stars. And I love Colbert.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by RedRiver »

Colbert can do no wrong. Often cast in lighter fare, she nonetheless displayed considerable depth. A thorough actress.
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JackFavell
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by JackFavell »

I remember this one! It never quite takes off, does it? But it's a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. I think you are right, the two male leads are too much alike, or not sparky enough. Maybe better to pair up sour Douglas with someone with more verve, or Young with a more feisty, rugged type. But what do i know? Like Too Many Husbands, it never gels exactly but I can't figure out why. I think with Too Many Husbands, the ending didn't sit right with me, and I can't remember the ending of the Colbert movie, but it starts to slow down once the dynamic is in place and the three are traveling around together - I think I remember that I wanted them to have more to do. But i always like these types of comedies... Design For Living maybe spawned them all? Probably not, there are silent versions too, like What Price Glory? for instance. I think my favorite is Moon Over Miami, but any triple lead movie is fine by me. So many to choose from and they all bring something different to the mix.

I keep seeing a movie on TCM, I always walk in on the middle of it, and every time I like it. It's called JOY OF LIVING. It stars Irene Dunne and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. who I can't even picture in the same room together much less as leads in a movie, and yet, the end of this film (the only part I've seen) just works magic on me! I just love the chemistry of these two. She's the pent up stage star, Maggie Garrett, who works all the time to support her ungrateful family, and he's the drifter who can do anything he pleases, as long as it doesn't take more than a couple dollars. He teaches her how to have fun, gets her drunk on beer and shows her the title 'joy of living'. It doesn't hurt that her horrible family is played by Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee, Lucille Ball, and Frank Milan. Also included in the cast are Warren Hymer, Billy Gilbert and my favorite Jean Dixon as Maggie's only true friend in a household of kibbitzers. Sometimes I pass up Doug Jr. in movies, because I improperly think of him as a second stringer, but I forget how good he can be... by the time this picture and Young In Heart rolled around, he was quite an accomplished actor and very very pleasant to watch. He and Dunne really spark off one another because they are constantly adding little bits of business to an otherwise ordinary story. Sometimes it's just nice to watch two classy people.
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movieman1957
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by movieman1957 »

SPOILER

At the end of "I Met Him In Paris" she marries Douglas. On the boat ride home Young and the suitor from the beginning are left to ponder life without her. You are right that the film started to bog down. For me it started when they got to Switzerland. That is the point where it should have started to pick up. It does give a good glimpse of 1937 winter sports but that is hardly a recommendation for the film.

Someone on imdb mentioned, as you have, that "Design For Living" might have been an inspiration.

I like "Too Many Husbands" more than you. I think that it is more off the wall than "Paris" and Douglas is much more fun in that one. MacMurray has more life and maybe the fact that he and Douglas are adversaries where Douglas and Young are friends helps "Husbands." Yes, the ending is a bit odd in "Husbands" but I like the overall feel of the film much better than "Paris."
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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JackFavell
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by JackFavell »

SPOILERS

I agree, it is far more lively, I think the ending just disappointed me in Too Many Husbands whereas I Met Him in Paris just starts to get boring, yes when they get to Switzerland. That's exactly the point where I lost interest. I almost hate movies that start out so good and then don't go anywhere. It's such a shame. I think they thought they could just stick them in a traveling situation and it would entertain and work itself out. It's underwritten in the last half of the movie, and why on earth did they stick Young with a wife? Now you don't like him and why not just tell her, instead of having Douglas go around all disapproving? It could have worked, but i think they never really thought of an ending, so it goes nowhere, we just get stuck in the situation forever.
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mrsl
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by mrsl »

.
One more time back to Move Over Darling vs. My Favorite Wife. I agree that nobody, but nobody can beat Cary Grant at his comedy game. But that is for his generation (which you know, I love), and then Jim Garner came in with the second generation of true actors and actresses. And when Garner chooses to be funny, he is [i]FUNNY.[/i] He can run off a dry remark that makes you cry with laughter, just as Cary did with just a look.

In a relatively new movie (by that I mean about 10 to 15 years old), named One Fine Day, starring yum-yum, George Clooney and Michelle Pfiffer, at the end of the wild day, he's going to kiss her, but he draws it out by talking, teasing, leaning in, etc. until, I, sitting on my couch watching, can barely keep myself from screaming "Go ahead and kiss her already ! ! !" I love that scene. It's true comedy at it's finest as well as being downright romanntic!.
Anne


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RedRiver
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by RedRiver »

James Garner is a charming performer. He plays the same type over and over. But he plays it well. Do you ever get tired of Bret Maverick? I haven't seen the Clooney film, but moments like that are sweet. So much of romance, in real life as well as drama, lies in the anticipation of the act. The kiss itself? Whatever!
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movieman1957
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by movieman1957 »

Since Mary Boland was such a hit on her SUTS day I quite accidentally stumbled over one of her films that was primarily a Claudette Colbert picture. "Three Corner Moon" is an oddball comedy about how the stock market crash and Depression finally catch up with a well-to-do family and how they cope with it.

Not very well - at least at first. Mary Boland as the hair brained but adorable mother has squandered the family fortune after giving her money to a "very nice man" to put in a mine that gives us the title of the movie. Completely bored and rather snobbish Claudette is reduced to finding a job to help out the family. The brothers also are game for it but Claudette's fiance who has been forever writing a novel just can't bring himself to pitch in and help though he is living with them.

The film alternates between the families desperation and their little victories as it swirls around the mostly clueless Boland. It's not all that funny but there are some fun lines from Boland and a few from the optimistic Wallace Ford. At about 80 minutes it might be okay if you are a big Boland or Colbert fan but I'm not sure there is much to recommend watching outside of the rarity of it.

Courtesy of Netflix.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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JackFavell
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by JackFavell »

I really liked Three Cornered Moon, Chris, but it doesn't fit into a genre easily, unless it's the genre of weird movies that don't have a genre. :D

I can think of two others off the top of my head that are similar in their refusal to stay in the screwball vein - History is Made at Night, and She Married Her Boss. I like all three, but they can be disconcerting if you expect a particular style.
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movieman1957
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by movieman1957 »

Maybe it's more me with movies that don't fit a genre. Part of it was fun but the part that was being serious was almost too much so. Claudette's little brother crying almost because he is so hungry and then Claudette thinking he had actually died before getting the live in doctor to check seemed just a tad too much.

I liked Ford and the way the brothers rough housed with each other at their age. I'm glad I saw it because I'd never heard of it before I fell over at Netflix. I had to since I love Claudette.

I think I need to see "She Married Her Boss." If you like it......
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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Re: Comedy - Romantic and Otherwise

Post by JackFavell »

It's more serious than screwball, and not at all what I was expecting from a Colbert/LaCava matchup.

I agree that the serious parts of Three Cornered Moon were terribly serious, which was disconcerting, considering the way the movie was shaping up. And the scene where she thought he was dead seemed staged just a little bit, it felt somehow off, but I felt the movie's dealing with actual hunger was a good representation of the Depression which surprised me. I too liked the roughhousing and Wallace Ford's character, his anxiety over his career, and I liked that he actually passed, even though he thought he didn't.
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