Honeymoon for Three

Perhaps with a brighter script they would have managed not to look so silly, but GEORGE BRENT and ANN SHERIDAN can't redeem HONEYMOON FOR THREE no matter how hard they try. The script puts them through impossible to believe situations, the main one being why Brent (with an eye for the gals) bats his eyes at anyone else when Ann Sheridan is around. Sheridan is at her absolute physical peak and manages to deliver some sassy lines with her usual pep and appeal.

But nothing really helps, not even though the script is by Julius J. Epstein who has done some wonderful work at Warner Bros. elsewhere. And even a good supporting cast tries gamely to make the thing work, with a few chuckles at most as reward for their hard work--people like CHARLIE RUGGLES, JANE WYMAN, OSA MASSEN, WALTER CATLETT and WILLIAM T. ORR.

Brent at least shows more animation than usual in a comedy role. He and Sheridan married a couple of years later, so there should have been more chemistry between them for this feeble screwball comedy that has Sheridan as his neglected secretary who has to cope with his roving eye on one too many occasions. A highlight of the film is a dinner scene in a restaurant, but, alas, the trouble with the film is that the sum is a lot less than a few stray scenes.

Summing up: Strains too hard but misses by a wide margin.

The plot has been used before and since but the dialogue is extremely funny. George Brent does a good job but Charlie Ruggles steals every scene he is in but even so Ann Sheridan is gorgeous and I couldn't

stop looking at her. She was a beautiful woman.. I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to lovers of good clean comedy.

The individual scenes and performances are hilarious, but if you sit back and look at the big picture it really doesn't make much sense. Author Kenneth Bixby (George Brent) has proposed to his secretary Anne (Ann Sheridan), and in the first scene she accepts. Apparently Ken has a roving eye for the ladies, and Anne knows this yet is ready to marry this guy. Now maybe that might make sense because love generally trumps common sense. What doesn't make sense is when Ken's now married old flame of eight years ago, Julie (Osa Massen), shows up acting like a groupie with Ken not even remembering her at first, yet he still agrees to have a romantic rendezvous with her. Ken is supposed to be such the ladie's man yet he acts like Julie is a hot potato he would just as soon get rid of - so why doesn't he? Ken behaves more like a kleptomaniac than a great lover - carting Julie around like a stolen watch where the thrill of the crime is much more exciting than the ill gotten loot to which he is largely indifferent. Likewise, secretary Anne seems to enjoy catching Ken in the act of lying about other women and doesn't seem disappointed in his behavior at all.

The individual scenes, witty dialogue, and performances make up for all of this to a degree. There is the great Charlie Ruggles as Julie's husband who is grateful that someone has come along - Ken - to finally rid him of her annoying presence without him having to pay alimony. Then there is Jane Wyman as Julie's cousin and William Orr as her overbearing fiancé who want to insert themselves into the Julie/Ken romance as the keepers of decency with their elaborate schemes to keep the two apart.

It's a good thing this is a comedy because there is nobody to sympathize with in this film. Julie would be a sympathetic figure if she just wasn't so manic and emotionally needy. Likewise I'd feel sorry for Anne if she didn't have the annoying habit of undoing Ken's one positive character trait - that of being a big tipper. Anytime Ken leaves a tip she takes it out of the waiter's hand and replaces it with something much smaller.

I'd recommend this one if you are just willing to take off your thinking cap, laugh, and enjoy.

I've never understood the success of George Brent. He seems so uninteresting in most of the movies with him that I've seen. He is particularly uncharismatic in screwball comedy, which is what this movie is trying to be.

But there are lots of things that don't really work here. Ann Sheridan, who would give a spectacular performance the next year in The Man who Came to Dinner, never takes off here.

Is it the director? Lloyd Bacon made lots of good movies. Is it his fault this one just never catches fire? I don't have an answer.

This movie has some real talent in it, but it goes nowhere.

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I watched this movie again tonight, four years after I wrote the review above. I think I must have been in a bad mood then, because I enjoyed it much more now.

The real genius here is the script, which has some wonderful lines. Director Lloyd Bacon does keep things moving at a rapid pace. Ann Sheridan, as others have noted, is attractive, though no where nearly as stunning as in The Man Who Came to Dinner, which I watched again last night for the nth time - and loved from start to finish yet once again.

There are weak points here, clichés and filler. But at its best, it really is a zippy comedy.

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I watched it again tonight - not recognizing it until well into the movie, I'm embarrassed to report - and this time found it pleasant but unremarkable. I keep watching Ann Sheridan movies because she is so good in *The Man who came to Dinner*, but that really seems to have been a one-off gem for her. What a shame.

Slim comedy that boasts terrific comic performances by stars Sheridan and Brent as bickering secretary/boss who confront a hoard of adoring women fans who flock to see their favorite author (Brent). Good support from old reliables like Charlie Ruggles, Walter Catlett, Lee Patrick, and Jane Wyman in a small part. The stars are definitely better than their material here, but the film has a lot of funny lines and cute confrontations. Ann Sheridan--one of the most underrated actresses of her time--is especially gorgeous!