Echec à la dame

This rarely shown 1939 Twentieth-Century-Fox comedy is based on a frothy novel by James M. Cain, best known today for his hard-boiled detective fiction and screenplays. With a first-rate script by one of Zanuck's most versatile collaborators --the writer/producer/director Nunnally Johnson, who the very next year would be nominated for his screenplay for "Grapes of Wrath," the movie is blessed with an unusual cast: Warner Baxter, whom one would never think of as a comic actor, is perfectly believable and extremely appealing as the too understanding husband; the incandescently lovely and, for once, the not-too-saccharine Loretta Young as his not quite talented enough wife; Binnie Barnes as the scheming other woman; Helen Westley as the dreadful mother-in-law, and finally one of Lubitsch's stalwarts, George Barbier, as Westley's long-suffering husband. Perhaps in tribute to the great maestro himself the film ends with Baxter and Young in a train singing "Beyond the Blue Horizon" which Jeanette MacDonald also sang in a train in Lubitsch's classic "Monte Carlo." Gregory Ratoff directs with great flair.

Wife, Husband and Friend (1939)

*** (out of 4)

This is a rather bizarre comedy from Fox, which has Loretta Young playing the wife, a woman who thinks she has a great voice and would make a terrific star but she doesn't realize that she's rather mediocre. Warner Baxter is the husband who hates music until one day he realizes that he's got a great voice and goes out on tour behind the wife's back. The friend (Binnie Barnes) brings on all sorts of problems with her greed and jealousy. WIFE, HUSBAND AND FRIEND is a good movie thanks in large part to a terrific cast but I honestly can't remember a comedy from this era that had more unlikeable characters. In fact, I'd say all of the characters here were quite ugly all around leading with the wife. She's so self-centered, rude and spoiled that you can't help but not like her and especially after a breakdown scene she has towards the end. Baxter's character really isn't much better and there's no question that the Barnes diva is annoying and a real jerk. The shocking thing is that all three actors are simply wonderful with their performances and especially Young during that breakdown scene I mentioned. Baxter really gets to shine with some of the comedy early on and we get strong work from Cesar Romero, George Barbier and Eugene Palette. The film isn't as funny as one would have liked but there are enough laughs to keep it going and there's no question that the cast is in fine form.

"The Thin Man meets Opera" is the best way I can describe the character of this romantic comedy, it is such an unusual movie and so funny. Warner Baxter and Loretta Young star as a contractor husband and his society wife, Leonard and Doris Borland. Leonard's contracting business hasn't been doing so well - a fact he's been concealing from his wife in hopes that things turn around. Doris wants to try at a singing career. Leonard decides Doris just needs to get it out of her system and twists the arm of everyone in town that he knows to come to his wife's singing debut so that it will be a success, hoping that this one event will put an end to her efforts. You see, the problem is that Doris is actually a terrible singer.

The other problem is that Mr. Borland is actually a tremendous singer. This is discovered when he runs into a professional singer, Cecil Carver (Binnie Barnes) who suggests Mr. Borland go on a singing tour with her. With his business being hard up for cash, Mr. Borland accepts, but has to be careful to conceal what's going on from his wife, who in the meantime is having a hard time getting any more audiences for her singing.

Strong support comes from Eugene Palette as Leonard Borland's business partner in the contracting firm, and there is a small bit done by a very young Cesar Romero as someone who is supportive of Doris Borland's singing efforts. I'd never seen Warner Baxter do comedy before, and it was quite a treat, especially when he bursts into song with an obviously dubbed baritone voice. Catch this one if it comes your way.

The title characters of Wife, Husband, and Friend are Loretta Young, Warner Baxter and Binnie Barnes. Although given Binnie's actions in the film the characterization is open to interpretation.

Loretta and Warner are the proverbial happily married upper middle class couple, he in the contracting business and she the socialite with a dream of being a concert singer. Seems to be a hereditary thing, Loretta's mother Helen Westley had similar ambitions to the chagrin of her father George Barbier.

Baxter tries to humor her, but that only encourages and his humoring becomes an expensive proposition. Enter real opera singer Binnie Barnes who accidentally discovers its Baxter who's got the voice in the family. Baxter also attracts her in other ways. In the meantime Loretta's got Cesar Romero, a pianist buzzing around her hive.

I'd love to know who dubbed the voices of all these people, the film from 20th Century Fox lists no credits. The major fault in the film is the casting of Baxter. He's a good actor, but hardly a blue collar type. When the film was remade ten years later, Paul Douglas played Baxter's role in Everybody Does It.

Even with Baxter miscast, the film's got a lot of amusing moments, especially on the opera stage with Baxter. He carries the comedy part off real well. Unlike A Night At The Opera where the Marx Brothers set out to disrupt the opera, Baxter does his whole shtick quite accidentally.

I'm glad TCM unearthed this long buried classic, it's dated, but still has some good moments. Loretta beauty sparkles and Binnie Barnes was never better as the wisecracking other woman.

I caught about 3/4 of this movie last night on Turner Classics and I wish I had seen it from the beginning. I was so taken with Warner Baxter's performance - he is so cute when he performs on stage the first time, scratching and looking uncomfortable. Later when he reluctantly stars with Miss Barnes in an opera, dressed in this Renaissance type outfit complete with fake beard, he is just a delight to watch. I actually laughed out loud. The dialog is crisp and funny, Loretta Young is very appealing and the supporting actors are real characters. I would buy this movie and skip the music, except for the last song they do on the train.