Pour l'amour de Caroline

I thought that the posted average rating was somewhat low for this film so I reviewed the reviews. This is one of those films where many love it and many pan it. Anna Lee is great in her admittedly light role yet she's picked on presumably because one has not liked the film and Anna was not a well known star like Colman - she was well cast and did the role as it should be played. Almost all reviewers acknowledged that Colman was great. One critic complained that he could not see Colman's character falling in love with Lee's character - fair enough observation but irrelevant for a comedy - think of George Burns and Gracie (airhead) Allen - those inconsistencies are the comic devices that almost all comedies rely on. I thought it was very amusing except for the ending. For some reason, the writers thought they had to end with a plot twist that added no comedy whatsoever (any laugh after the twist was independent of the twist) and quite confusing. Perhaps the unfortunate choice of twist for the last few minutes of the film threw others off as well and one's impression of a film is often disproportionately affected by the ending. It was an entertaining 1930s-1940s-ish comedic farce, but if you don't like that style, you may not like it.

Abysmal Anna Lee and charmless Ronald Colman fail to summon enough vitality to get this sour screwball going from the outset in this laxly directed effort by Lewis Milestone. Lee is wide eyed gullible most of the way while Colman a smug understanding bore in this comedy romance that has neither.

Constantly on the road successful businessman Anthony Mason (Colman) has a wife with a wandering eye (Lee). Prone to falling in love while hubby is away a tolerant Mason employs an understanding that usually brings her back to earth and restores the marriage. This time it is a Latin lover but the nonchalant Mason seems far from threatened.

The limited Lee brings nothing but wide eyed confusion to the inane role of Caroline who seems to have the emotional maturity of a twelve year old. She seems committed to only her romantic delusions and completely out of touch with her fellow characters. Colman for his part looks distracted and uninvolved, his interplay with Lee patronizing more than intimate. The supporting cast offers none with a smarmy Reggie Gardner and a wheezing Charles Winninger unable to bring sly humor to surly character.

Ronald Colman tells the audience about "My Life with Caroline" in this very light 1941 comedy that also stars Anna Lee and Reginald Gardner. The lovely Lee plays Caroline, the dizzy wife of Antony Mason (Colman). Apparently when Antony is away on business, Caroline becomes lonely, takes up with someone else, and plans to leave Antony, which she doesn't. The film starts with the very handsome Gilbert Roland planning to take Caroline as his bride and bring her back to Argentina. Caroline's father (Charles Winninger) reminds Roland that Caroline's husband might have something to say.

Turns out, Antony is already on the scene and, facing the camera, tells us about an early incident, this time involving Caroline and Reginald Gardner, and the subtle ways in which Antony managed to put a spanner in the works.

Very nice comedy with potential for more laughs in the hands of another director. Lewis Milestone directed, and this wasn't really his métier. It was great to see beautiful Anna Lee as a young woman - I knew her basically as Lila Quartermaine in General Hospital as an elderly woman. Colman is wonderful, and Gardner is appropriately pompous.

Good cast, but it needed a different kind of touch.

I'm not an huge fan of farce - but Ronald Colman manages to pull it off quite successfully here - he must be in just about every scene! His wife "Caroline" (Anna Lee) falls for a wealthy gaucho "Paco" (Roland Lee) despite still having feelings for her husband. He, "Tony", on the other hand though outwardly indifferent to his wife not only still loves her, but has no intention of letting her head to the pampas - so he must thwart her cunning plan. This story is all over the shop - it makes little enough sense at the best of times; but there is oodles of chemistry between the two stars and, as usual, much of it's appeal comes down to Colman's marvellously underplayed facial expressions - and, for that matter, Lee's ability to play the ditzy, fickle wife with some aplomb too. There are some back stories to support/clutter up the scenarios, depending on your perspective and it's really not a very substantial film to watch, if I'm honest - but as a bit of escapism with some comedy and charisma, it's well worth 80 minutes of anyone's time.

Ronald Coleman's company, which produced this film for RKO, chose playwright John Van Druten to adapt a 1935 French farce by Henri Verneuill to film. Although on the surface, Colman would appear to be perfectly cast--suave, urbane, witty, charming-- something essential is missing. There is no sex in this sex comedy. Unlike the French, these sophisticated Americans don't seem to go the bed with one another, or even think about it. Instead, they take naps and drink a lot. Lubitsch, had he directed, might have found a way to add the missing attraction and tension, but the film's director, Lewis Milestone, excellent craftsman as he was, avoids it all together. Given the censorship restrictions of the time, perhaps this was an impossible project to begin with, untranslatable. There are some worthwhile moments, however, in this 1941 pre-Pearl Harbor glossy studio-bound film. Reginald Denny, for one, is far less cloying than usual, and has some wonderful moments with Colman. The rest of the cast, particularly Anna Lee, is first-rate.