El mujeriego

Enchanting, wittily written screwball comedy about a supposed bachelor, on the eve of his wedding, who discovers he may have fathered a child by a previous marriage that only lasted a week or so. His prospective father-in-law (Morgan), eager to rescue him from any marriage, encourages him to investigate. When he discovers his young divorcee plans to give the baby up for adoption (or pretends to), he kidnaps the infant and tries to raise it with the help of a small hotel's staff. Of course, much comedy ensues. The story is handled well and the humor light and effective, but Wright's character is not well drawn and her relationship with Cooper seems a bit forced. Cooper is well developed and the comic situations are amusing.

For a lighthearted comedy as described, the subjects are quite serious, a man sees his short intense relationship with his fiancée end very suddenly because the introduction to his future mother-in-law does not exactly go smoothly, to put it mildly.

That is a kind of flashback by the way because in the meantime he already has a new relationship, one in which he is going to get married tomorrow.

But when he finds out that his ex has just given birth to a daughter and that she wants to give the child up for adoption, he more or less kidnaps the child.

His current girlfriend is very easily pushed aside as filler and that results in a strangely unbalanced film, it is also strange to see how fathers then were already seen at that time as people who actually had little right to their child while mothers were already considered to be the rightful owners for the upbringing .

This one gets a lot of flak for being simply ridiculous--and I can see why--but if you come with a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief you will enjoy it.

A case in point--a cigarette butt ends up burning an entire house--which some viewers might see as over-the-top but I thought was simply laugh-out-loud hilarious. There are other laugh-out-loud moments for me too, but the movie nosedives when the Gary Cooper character kidnaps his own baby: he's a college professor and is unable to understand the rate of growth of a newborn baby? Seriously stretches credulity, but watch it for Gary Cooper and the earnest Teresa Wright.

Casanova Brown (1944)

A not-so-screwball comedy, but a comedy, based on the solid writing of Nunnally Johnson. The idea is a really 1940s one: can a man raise a baby? Throw in a leading man who is so thrown by his dilemma he marries or almost marries three women (all in the same room at one point), and so on and so on.

Cary Cooper is the superstar, and he's his usual likable but slightly dull (restrained) self, and he might not be the best for the role, but in a way that's the point, that the man is clumsy and awkward about anything maternal. The cast around him is terrific, including Frank Morgan (who was the wizard in The Wizard of Oz). And the third star, Teresa Wright, is her predictably sweet and perky self, once she arrives on the scene.

It's a zany plot, for sure, and if it drags a little sometimes, or is just a bit corny, that's part of it. The convergence of the various people who are at odds with each other without knowing it is almost inevitable, but when it happens it clicks. And Frank Morgan is key, more than anyone. The photography might not seem to matter in a film that is so plot heavy, and so insane, but in fact the cinematography by John Seitz is really superb, and helps make the thing hold together.

If you watch the first twenty minutes you'll know whether to watch the rest. I really think some people will find this too old fashioned in its humor, and a little to contrived and silly, too. But others will be glad for the non-stop absurdity, for the nice filming, and for the almost surreal strangeness of events.

This "screwy comedy" seems very forced. Indeed, the actors TRY very hard to make a go of an essentially unfunny script. And, as a result it doesn't really go anywhere. The idea of a woman finding out she was pregnant after getting a quickie divorce just isn't all that funny. And then, when Cooper sneaks off with the baby because he doesn't want it put up for adoption just seems terribly unfunny and it's really pushing hard to turn this into a comedy. It's really a shame, too, as the actors were more capable than the script and I found myself just bored by the whole mess. Considering that Cooper made so many GOOD comedies, I recommend you see them instead.