SOMETHING FOR THE BIRDS (1952)

This throwaway programmer (a modest-to-a-fault Capra-esque political comedy about a naive environmentalist in Washington trying to save the California Condor) must have felt like a comedown for everyone involved. Not so much bad as unwanted. Squarely helmed by fast-rising Robert Wise, the film wants a fanciful touch out of his range to spin its gently humorous situation into farce. At least, that’s the idea with Edmund Gwenn’s doughty engraver nipping invitation ‘proofs’ to get into all the top parties in town. Known as ‘The Admiral,’ an idea he does nothing to stop, that’s how he meets fellow-gatecrasher Patricia Neal, the condor protector working to stop passage of a natural gas excavation bill threatening her endangered birds. Topical, no? And it’s also where she meets the Admiral’s old pal, lobbyist Victor Mature, who takes a fancy to her, unaware his own firm represents the bill’s main sponsor. Hilarity ensues. Well, more modest chuckles, though one sharp comic scene with Mature expecting more than a nightcap back at Neal’s hotel is a pleasant surprise. And speaking of surprises, there’s Mature himself, looking trim & sophisticated instead of blunt & beefy (you’ll want his tailor), holding his own against Neal & Gwenn’s more relaxed, nuanced playing. All the same, twee stuff that misses the biggest question of all: why would anyone sneak into one of those dreary Washington gatherings most D.C.’ers would do just about anything to get out of.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: This was more-or-less it for Patricia Neal’s first round in Hollywood. (And no match for her previous Robert Wise pic, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL/'51.) Punted around from Warners to M-G-M to 20th/Fox over four years (starting in 1949), her next major film would be A FACE IN THE CROWD/’57, and even then, no major Hollywood calls for nearly a decade after this when HUD/’63 finally established her bona fides until she was cut down by a major stroke while shooting John Ford’s 7 WOMEN/’66.