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Tuesday, June 8, 2021

THE CONSTANT HUSBAND (aka MARRIAGE A LA MODE) (1955)

This multi-marriage roundelay, written & directed by Sydney Gilliat, has the shape of comedy, but generates very few actual laughs.  Rex Harrison wakes in Wales without memory, an amnesiac who follows his tracks back to wealthy wife Kay Kendall, stylish & cool as an English cucumber.  Delightful!  If only further digging didn’t uncover five more gorgeous wives; Rex some sort of serial bridegroom.  Taken to court as a bigamist, beautiful barrister Margaret Leighton not only defends him, but looks set to join the happy sorority.  Yikes!  A swell cast of British vets (Cecil Parker, Robert Coote, Michael Hordern, Raymond Huntley) are there to season the pot and add male resentment none of the wives demonstrate.  It sounds like a hoot, but other than a few telltale behavioral laughs during the trial, not much clicks.  Harrison, a master farceur for Preston Sturges in UNFAITHFULLY YOURS/’48, had better luck with Gilliat as a cad redeemed by war in THE RAKE’S PROGRESS/’45.  But don’t put all the blame on Gilliat; farce is tough business on screen.  On the other hand, legendary on-set matchmaking with Rex falling hard for love of his life/third wife Kay Kendall.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: An earlier Harrison marital farce, Nöel Coward’s BLITHE SPIRIT/’45, with David Lean calling the shots, only slightly better.  (After its preview: David Lean to Nöel Coward: ‘Well, Nöel, what do you think of it?’; Noël Coward to David Lean: ‘My dear, you have fucked up the best thing I ever wrote.’)  Later, Harrison tried an actual Georges Feydeau farce in a D.O.A. version of A FLEA IN HER EAR/’67.  Instead, see Harrison & Kendall triumph over tame drawing room material in THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE/’58.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-reluctant-debutante-1958.html  OR: As mentioned, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS.

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