Man-Proof

This is a typical love triangle movie with Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell and Walter Pidgeon, with Franchot Tone at the odd man out. It's hard to know which is worse, the acting, the plot or the dialog. The outcome is fairly predictable, given the time period when this movie was made. As far as the acting goes, Ms. Loy is thoroughly unlikeable, Mr. Pidgeon stiff and Mr. Tone an insipid hanger-on. Ms. Russell comes off the best of the lot, thought her final scene when she is magnanimously prepared to give up her husband is unconvincing and without the necessary character motivation. Motivation is also lacking in the apparent coupling of Myrna Loy and Franchot Tone, when the prior attraction seemed to be all one-sided. The best acting by far is by the little known Nana Bryant, who plays Loy's mother.

Mimi (Myrna Loy) is not taking the marriage of ex, Allen Wythe (Walter Pidgeon), lying down. Even with a Mrs. Wythe (Rosalind Russell) in the picture she is determined to get him back. When she makes her move on Allen it turns out easier than she expected but much more difficult in other ways.

Aside from Mimi's husband stealing focus the cast of Man Proof remains on good behavior most of the time as they restrain themselves and the picture from going comically screwball. Loy who wonderfully underplays a drunk scene sobers up long enough to maturely assess her actions while Russell shows similar restraint at Loy's audacity. Meanwhile cad Pidgeon sees no problem with doing Mimi on the side.

With adults behaving like adults Man-Proof is void of zaniness most of the way. Loy, Russell, Pidgeon and Franchot Tone as a graphic artist enamored with Mimi give sound performances but the overall production seems void of a rich sense of humor and Man-Proof is laugh proof more than it should be.

It starts out as a bubbly comedy and quickly sinks into "women's picture" banality, with Loy inexplicably pining over stolid Walter P., who is marrying Rosalind Russell (her la-di-dah accent is intolerable), while Franchot Tone is making drunken quips on the sidelines. The tone is all over the place, now breezy, now soap-opera, and poor Myrna Loy looks miserable throughout -- she must have known how negligible this script is. The characters' alliances shift scene by scene, without explanation, and the happy-ending fadeout wouldn't convince a five-year-old. The four leads are pros and almost always interesting to watch, but this one is so MGM-fake and dramatically underpowered that it plays like a prehistoric episode of "One Life to Live."

I should confess up front that Myrna Loy buys the first 6 points just for showing up. That said, I think this movie has been underrated. It's a bit uneven and has some weak moments - self conscious and over wrought, or at least over written. But all in all, there's a lot to like. Myrna Loy, for one. Wait. I said that already. There are two really interesting characters - Loy's and Pigeon's. Russell and Tone are fine, but one dimensional. Meg, Loy's mother, is quite good, if expected. And despite Tone's obvious love for Loy throughout, there's no compelling chemistry between them even at the end when they're supposed to be obviously in love. But the overall package is well worth it.

I noticed from the IMDB cast list of the film that Rita Johnson and Ruth Hussey's scenes are deleted from the film. Perhaps this explains why the movie seems to have no proper beginning that explains the characters' motivations. At the beginning of the print I saw, Myrna Loy's character is heartbroken over losing Walter Pidgeon's character to Rosalind Russell's. However, it's not clear why she likes Walter Pidgeon's character, though. For me, Franchot Tone's character comes off as much more likeable, but maybe that's Franchot Tone--who usually seemed charming in films. It's hard not to enjoy a film with such great actors as those in this film, but if this film was edited, it's hard to see why. The version I saw (not sure if there's another one) was only about 1 hour and ten minutes long so it couldn't have been too long unless it was meant to be a B-picture, but why make a B-picture with an A-list cast? Anyway, I think fans of Rosalind Russell and Franchot Tone will like it more than Myrna Loy or Walter Pidgeon fans will since both Myrna and Walter play rather dislikable characters, although both do a fine job of making them believable. But Rosalind Russell and Franchot Tone have less screen time, so even their fans may be disappointed in this film.