Eheposse

I like these actors in most everything I've seen them in, but this one has a whiff of cheese going bad in the fridge. Ray Milland is psychotic over his search for financial success and kicks his wife around like a dog. Colbert has lost her mind and her self-respect as she whimpers fondly around him hoping for a pat on the head. And then things turn weirdly comic as Brian Aherne drops in to distract her.

A divorce seems comfortably inevitable; she and Aherne seem soul mates for sure, until Colbert's own psychosis turns her back towards a scheming Milland. Me oh my, who will she choose? Is anyone following this? I could have used cue cards for applause and hissing because the director didn't know where this thing was going. And it didn't get there.

This mishmash was not fun, and now I've got to carve off the mold to salvage a single bite of cheddar goodness. One of the few times I've rated a film at less than the user average, but at only 103 voters, this fuzzy stinker seems to have kept most of them out of the fridge.

Or, if you prefer, Comedy Lite, because 'Skylark" is only semi-funny. I can only guess Director Mark Sandrich didn't have a good feel for comedy as several scenes which could have been funny seemed forced and heavy-handed. A Leo McCarey or Mitchell Leisen could have gotten more mileage out of them, but, as is, "Skylark" is unsatisfying and leaves you feeling unfulfilled, like Lite beer or diet soda.

Other reviews recount the plot, but just let me say that the main reason to watch this one is to watch several old pros give their all and try to make a mediocre picture better just by their presence. It belongs mainly to Claudette Colbert, who tries mightily and comes off the best of the principals. She is ably supported by Ray Milland and Brian Aherne, who also do their best. Walter Abel does not come off so well and is better in straight drama parts. And the old pop standard 'Skylark" is apparently not from this picture. I put my star rating in the heading as the website no longer includes them.

Samson Raphaelson's hit Broadway play of 1939 (with Gertrude Lawrence headlining) comes to the screen starring the left side of Claudette Colbert's face. She plays the frustrated wife of Ray Milland, a stuffy advertising executive who is coasting through their marriage after five years; one night, she flirts innocently with another man (Brian Aherne) and gets the gumption to seek a divorce. 'Sophisticated' comedy with lead-balloon lines and static character interaction. Colbert manages to live and dress exquisitely but, in the very first scene, overhears her husband's assistant buying her anniversary present and actually exchanges it for something less expensive (!); Aherne, as a lawyer, and twinkling like a debonair version of Red Skelton, takes Colbert for a drive and for a bite to eat at a diner--and this non-romantic date actually convinces her to leave her husband. The whole scenario is such a shallow conceit--a fraud--that it's impossible to take the performances into consideration, although the bit players (all sarcastic) certainly show up the principals. ** from ****

This is one of those movies where a childless, jobless wife has an enormous, beautiful house, a cook, a butler, more exquisite clothes than she can count, and we're supposed to feel sorry for her. Because she is married to Ray Milland, who, after five years, gives her a huge, passionate kiss when he comes home. Yeah, that's suffering, all right.

Claudette Colbert's problem is that Ray spends too much time and thought on his job--you know, the one that provides the house, cook, butler, etc. So she flips and takes off with the pleasant but sexless Brian Aherne. Wouldn't be my move.

True, Ray is something of a bully. He literally strong-arms Claudette into coming with him, and harshly orders her in a way that a servant wouldn't take these days. So, to satisfy the women in the audience, he has to be made to grovel. And to keep Claudette from a complete triumph that would make her look domineering, she has to be made ridiculous.

It's all part of the movie's desperation to pretend marriage is romantic and amusing. Can I explain something? It isn't.

Skylark finds Claudette Colbert feeling like she's just running second fiddle to her husband Ray Milland's advertising business. So at another party where she's simply to function as the decoration on his arm, Claudette becomes susceptible to lawyer Brian Aherne who turns on the charm and makes her feel important. This woman is a Skylark and needs to spread her wings so he tells Milland.

In no time at all Aherne has moved right in as Claudette divorces Milland. After that Milland is busy planning his campaign to win her back.

Skylark probably needed a Mitchell Leisen or an Ernst Lubitsch to have been a real classic. Still all three of leads acquit themselves well. Aherne has a part that was normally reserved for David Niven, all charm and smiles. There's also a nice turn by Binnie Barnes as the hard hearted wife of Milland's boss Grant Mitchell who has her own claim on Aherne and his vocabulary. Her confrontation scene with Colbert is priceless.

As is Colbert trying to take to a life at the sea when tries whip up enthusiasm for Aherne's passion for sailing. Her scenes on Aherne's boat are priceless.

A good comedy of the era, a bit shy of greatness however.