El hombre propone

Screwball comedy was popular in the late '30s and Warner Bros. made several contributions to this genre. Despite the stellar cast--Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles and Rosalind Russell--this one isn't considered one of the best but it's amusingly played by the four leads.

Errol Flynn is a surprise in a good comic performance--a highlight of which is the scenes where he is pursued by hound dogs snapping at his heels every time de Havilland's father (Walter Connolly) tries driving him off his property. Flynn and Rosalind Russell play a pair of scheming reporters who, along with newspaper boss Patric Knowles, exploit Connolly as "the meanest man in America". Love complications abound when the four snarling couples get into cabs for the finale, with a surprising switcheroo happening before a justice of the peace about to perform the marriage ceremony.

Olivia de Havilland looks gorgeous as the giddy daughter of millionaire Connolly and shows a decided flair for comedy. Likewise, Flynn, Russell and even Patric Knowles (less wooden than usual) appear to be having a great time in their roles.

Amusing frothy comedy with too many complicated schemes going on for almost all of its running time--but worth a peek if you enjoy watching these stars.

Errol Flynn, Rosalind Russell, Olivia de Havilland and Patric Knowles prove that "Four's a Crowd" in this 1938 comedy directed by Michael Curtiz.

With such a great cast, one would think this is a classic gem. Alas, no. In fact, due to a confusing script, it's in shambles. Fun shambles, but shambles.

Walter Connolly plays millionaire John Dillingwell, Olivia de Havilland is his beautiful albeit dizzy daughter, Rosalind Russell is a reporter, and Patric Knowles, who is dating de Havilland, is Russell's boss.

Dillingwell is a private person with no interest in public relations. Russell's boyfriend (Flynn) runs a PR firm and wants to land the Dillingwell account. With some help from the paper, Flynn manages to make Dillingwell the most hated man in America - a man desperately in need of having his image cleaned up. Not that he agrees to it right away.

The inspiration for this story is John D. Rockefeller, the most hated man in America at one time, known for his ruthless business tactics. He hired a publicist and, with the publicist's urging, began to give away his vast fortune consisting of property and money to various charities.

For screwball comedy, "Four's a Crowd" had a lot of competition, which is probably why the powers that be threw everything at it but the kitchen sink. Heiresses - "It Happened One Night," "Love is News," "Libeled Lady," etc. Abounded. So did the movies - and they were all better than this one.

There certainly are some fun scenes and some good performances. Flynn had a good flair for comedy, as did de Havilland, though they weren't often cast that way. De Havilland's early career was in fact doing airhead ingénues, such as in "It's Love I'm After" and this one. Russell is terrific as usual, and Knowles acquits himself well.

If only the script had been stronger...it's still fun, though.

In this film, Errol Flynn plays a publicity man and ex-newspaper editor, Patric Knowles plays the owner of a newspaper, Rosalind Russell a star reporter and Olivia DeHavilland plays...well,...an idiot. While I could try to explain the plot as well as how all these characters come together in the film, I'd rather not--as the film is a super-frenetic mess. I am a huge fan of Errol Flynn as well as Olivia DeHavilland, so it came as quite a surprise that I enjoyed this film as little as I did. The biggest problem was that despite all the star power and the direction of the great Michael Curtiz, the overall effort is pretty awful and is only saved by a few moments here and there (provided mostly by Flynn and Walter Connelly). The stars and script try too hard--making the film very shrill and pushy. This is because the film is too high-paced and the script too busy--often resulting in all the main actors talking loudly over each other (not a fun experience at all). Now SOME films with these qualities work (such as MY GIRL Friday or BRINGING UP BABY), but this one does not because the script is poor plus Miss DeHavilland is cast in one of her worst roles ever. While Miss DeHavilland was wonderful in roles in such notable films as CAPTAIN BLOOD and GONE WITH THE WIND, here she plays against type. Instead of the usual sweet character, here she plays a ditsy dame and it just never works and seems, like the rest of the film, very forced. Katherine Hepburn could pull this off, DeHavilland could not.

The bottom line is that the stars of this film made much better films and you should see them instead. In particular, Flynn, Knowles and DeHavilland all appeared in one of the greatest films of the era, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. So it's obvious with better direction (sorry, Curtiz just doesn't have it here, though he was usually a wonderful director--particularly in romances and adventure films) and writing this SHOULD have been a lot better considering the money Warner Brothers spent to bring all these stars together.

Rosalind Russell, ace reporter, is peeved that her newspaper is being shut down by cub publisher Patric Knowles, inexperienced son of the original publisher. Knowles has recently fired crack editor Errol Flynn, who has in turn set himself up as a publicity agent for rich curmudgeons who need good press. Olivia de Havilland, lovely and playful granddaughter of one such grumpy millionaire, is romantically attached to the handsome Knowles—at least for the moment.

The plot of this rapid fire comedy follows our four stars round and round: Russell wants Knowles to save the paper, wants Flynn back on the job. Flynn and Knowles have an old rivalry and delight in scoring off of each other. De Havilland seems happy letting everybody love her for her grandfather's eight million dollars. How will it all shake out?

Walter Connolly pretty much steals the show as the grandfather, a wealthy eccentric whose great passion is the model railroad that dominates his back yard. Melville Cooper is also excellent as Connolly's butler and stationmaster; the two of them in their engineer caps, running the train controls from their crow's nest, are just hilarious.

Out of a great cast, Russell and Connolly are most familiar in this kind of a screwball comedy and probably come across best. Flynn and de Havilland, though, are fun to watch, too—Flynn shows a flair for comic antics like stealing sticks of butter from a dark kitchen, and Olivia looks like she's having a ball as her fun-loving character laughs and whoops it up in a way that the Maid Marian (or Melanie Wilkes!) never would have dreamed of.

Overall, the movie is never dull but never quite takes off—is it the complicated plot that prevents this picture from really hitting full speed? In any case, it's certainly entertaining, thanks to the great cast and solid Warner Bros. production.

Someone posted that this film was 'a silly screwball comedy'. Of course it is: if a comedy isn't silly, it's not screwball. This one may not be a classic, but all the elements are there: pompous rich people, scheming reporters and a love triangle, er...square. It also has the comic supporting actors to make sure it all works. The rich weren't very popular in the depression so they were easy targets. The public's obsession with celebrities was already in full force and another easy target. And love mix-ups have been the basis for comedy since that original screwball - Willie Shakespeare.

Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland may not be Cary Grant and Carole Lombard but they do perfectly well and Ros Russell is a screwball icon. Patrick Knowles does a fine job and Flynn's foil. Walter Connolly, as the grumpy oligarch repeats his performance from "It Happened One Night". Melville Cooper, (the fourth member of the cast from 'The Adventures of Robin Hood': he was the comically villainous Sheriff of Nottingham) is his butler. Franklin Pangborn shows up as Knowles' manservant. Hugh Herbert is a justice of the peace and Margaret Hamilton is Connolly's housekeeper.

This one is way in the background of Flynn's career and not the kind of movie he's famous for but it's a solid piece of entertainment anyway. The great stars of the Golden Age made many such films and it's fun to look back and discover them and get a complete picture of their careers.