Nunnally Johnson rewrote this thrice-filmed romantic comedy (on B’way in 1929 with co-author/star Thomas Mitchell) as a light vehicle for Gary Cooper, looking for a comic change of pace after dying in two of his last three pics. Each a heavy hitting smash of two-plus hours. Here, Coop juggles three putative brides in 94 minutes when his upcoming wedding to Anita Louise is disrupted by news of a little girl, his little girl, just born to his ‘ex,’ Teresa Wright. (A marriage quickly annulled after he burnt down the family manse. Don’t ask.) Learning the infant is going up for adoption, he dashes to the hospital, kidnaps the child, even proposes to a sympathetic nurse in case he needs a wife to complete the transaction. While a big hit at the time, the laughs, like so many a Hollywood farce, now come off as forced & labored, especially in the first act (that house fire!), with more than its fair share of ‘funny’ miscommunications needed to keep the plot moving. That said, you’d be hard put to find a more charming group of players (Coop’s underplaying a huge relief), while the look of thing, thanks to lighting cameraman John F. Seitz, is quite unlike romantic comedies of the period. Director Sam Wood, a useful technician without much style of his own, depended on designers (like William Cameron Menzies in OUR TOWN/’40 and KINGS ROW/’42) or strong cinematographers (like this film’s John Seitz) for visual interest. And here, Seitz tosses aside expected proscenium-based views for dramatic setups & angles, abetted by a driving pace that lends weight to ridiculous situations. It turns more conventional in the last act, all those plot & character resolutions, but the formal look of the earlier parts is quite striking.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Seitz, who made his bones in silents with director Rex Ingram, was also responsible at this time for transforming the film techniques of writers-turned-directors Preston Sturges & Billy Wilder. (MIRACLE OF MORGAN’S CREEK/’43 and DOUBLE INDEMNITY/’44 among the results.)
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