Mr. Wilson perd la tête

Hilariously entertaining tale of a man with double amnesia: a dull penny pincher on one hand, a thieving con artist on the other. After being conked on the noggin he revives to find he has spent the last nine years as someone he isn't and reverts to his former tricky self. His apple cart is upset when he discovers he is falling for the wife he picked up during the nine year blackout. A plan to bilk some of the locals over a phony oil deal doesn't appear so rosy once his thorny heart is pricked by love, which puts him in danger from a mean tempered associate intent on becoming rich. Fast paced and very funny film, well worth watching, especially Powell's zany character.

I wonder if this might be the great granddaddy of all amnesia films. If it's not, it's sure one of the first and has inspired countless sitcom episodes. William Powell is bonked on the head and suddenly he's a completely different person--one who apparently disappeared nine years earlier. Who he was during the last nine years is uncertain, but what IS certain is that the new personality is a crook. When this shady guy figures out that during the last nine years he's become a pillar of the community and has access to gobs of other peoples' money, he wants to steal everything he can and run. The problem is, he discovers he has a wife (Loy) and can't bring himself to leave--even when he finds out she hates him. Well, much of the movie is spent trying to win her back, though he still wonders whether or not to rob his "friends". What he does and how the entire mess is resolved is brilliant and a lot of fun. This isn't wacky fun like his other film, LOVE CRAZY, but is a little more sophisticated and deliberately paced. A wonderful old film with excellent acting, writing (aside from the dumb plot device) and direction. One of Powell's and Loy's best.

Seems to me that in the course of his career, WILLIAM POWELL has been in many a movie as an amnesia victim--but here, it's strictly for laughs. He and Myrna Loy (at her most attractive) are paired again as a romantic couple with their usual share of misunderstandings and shenanigans. It has the flavor of a Nick and Nora flick--without Astor.

The story is a series of misunderstandings and comic situations all set up by the fact that Powell is struggling to remember who he was--and meanwhile rediscovers his wife and loves her very much even though she is threatening to leave him. None of it makes much sense and all of it is played strictly for laughs and romantic charm.

Working with very thin material, Loy and Powell do it again. Proof that their box-office chemistry was no fluke. If you enjoy this one, try LOVE CRAZY with an even crazier approach to the amnesia angle and even more amusing.

William Powell plays both George Carey and Larry Wilson, and Myrna Loy is his wife Kay in this wonderful, deft, entertaining screwball comedy directed by Woody Van Dyke III...."Hey, this is kinda funny. We're not talking about you but a lug named Wilson, and you're both fellas." The words are those of Doc Ryan, George Carey's pal. George, you see, has had amnesia for nine years, and during that time he became Larry Wilson, a pompous businessman....Enter Larry's charming wife Kay. George learns that Kay is eager to divorce Larry because of his miserable, suffocatingly materialistic ways; and when meets Kay, whom he has forgotten, he falls for her and sets out to reclaim her love....The film's defining moment surprises us with its tenderness. Standing in contrast to the film's madcap goings-on, it takes place when George escorts Kay, who thinks he's Larry, to the spot where years before he proposed to her as Larry. The scene precisely captures the distinctive and wonderful chemistry between Powell and Loy, who went on to make ten more pictures together....Like his two most famous characters (Godfrey of MY MAN GODFREY and Nick Charles of THE THIN MAN), Powell's George Carey emerges as a humane individual with the common touch. In fact, he becomes a hero, saving the townsfolk of quaint Haversville from a criminal scam perpetuated by a big city gangster named Duke Sheldon.

William Powell gets knocked on the head during an ocean cruise. It seems he's had amnesia for the past nine years and was a penny-pinching, thoroughly unlikable man married to Myrna Loy. Now that he's become his real self (which is strong and masculine) he falls in love with Loy. But she's planning to divorce him...so he has to win her all over again. And deal with his past as a gangster.

Very funny movie. Fast-moving, well-directed and acted...but it's all because of Loy and Powell. Those two were absolutely incredible on-screen--they played off each other brilliantly and their quick, non-stop dialogue and one-liners were just fantastic. I prefer this one over the "Thin Man" series they did--in the "Thin Man" they were always drinking and it was played for laughs!!! This one doesn't have that. Unfortunately it also doesn't have that adorable dog Asta.

Still, this quick and lots of fun. An excellent Hollywood comedy that (strangely) is almost forgotten today. Well worth seeing.