Le remarquable Mr. Pennypacker

Clifton Webb is a successful Mayve Decade sausage manufacturer, with facilities in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. He is a forward thinking fellow, who wears plus fours, has a lady secretary,believes in Darwin's theory of evolution and seventeen children: eight in Harrisburg with wife Dorothy Malone, and nine in Philadelphia with his deceased wife there; he is a bigamist, whose carefully separate lives are revealed to his families.

This sounds just like prime meat for the star of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, but there's a major problem: Webb, despite his speeches in this movie, is a self-serving jerk. There's no supercilious wit in his role, just an almost unbreakable self regard. Despite a prime cast that includes Charles Coburn and a fresh-faced Jill St. John, there's a tiredness to the role, as if the studio bought the Broadway stage show with an eye towards keeping Webb's string of titillating family fare going. Because of the way the role is written, it is no such thing. Acting honors to Miss Malone, but this looks like Disney fare of the 1970s.... once you subtract the immorality.

"The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker" is one of the very strangest Hollywood films I have ever seen and I certainly understand why it's one of Clifton Webb's least famous films. This is because the film is intended to be a comedy AND an endorsement of polygamy! Seriously--the film is very much pro-polygamy!! It really makes you wonder what the writer and executives were thinking when they came up with this one!! Perhaps massive head injuries, alcohol or psychedelics might be at the root of this one!!! Even today, most folks would be surprised at such a film.

Clifton Webb plays the title character. He's a successful businessman and free thinker. And, when I say free thinker, this is an understatement! Not only is he pro-evolution in a time when this was NOT popular but it turns out he's a bigamist--something that is discovered during the course of the film. However, Webb is not the least bit apologetic and thinks he's justified to have multiple families since he takes care of their financial and emotional needs (a position that is quite acceptable with some religions). His views are not based on religion (he seems areligious) but due to his own unusual asocial views.

At first, his family in Harrisburg is shocked. The ones who take it worst are his father as well as a daughter who is just about to marry a minister! As for the Harrisburg wife, she is MUCH more understanding than you'd expect, though she is not happy. She's happier when she learns later that the mother in Philadelphia has since died (though they were BOTH married to the same man at the same time). However, all told, there are 17 kids from both marriages!! And, in the end, they decide to make a giant family--much like Webb had in "Cheaper By the Dozen"--just a bit more...um....bigamistic (is this a word? I think it should be if it isn't).

Overall, the plot is just insane and the film is STILL a bit offensive and very unfunny today--so it makes you wonder how this flew in 1959!! Audiences must have gone ape! And, I assume, the film must have lost a fortune. A major misfire that simply couldn't work as a comedy. Interestingly, Edmond O'Brien made a film about bigamy ("The Bigamist") and it worked exceptionally well...and was NOT done for laughs. Despite good acting and lush sets, "The Incredible Mr. Pennypacker" is annoying, unfunny and a waste of talent.

By the way, this is NOT meant as criticism at all, but I find it odd that Webb starred in this and "Cheaper By the Dozen". These two films were about men with apparently VERY strong heterosexual libidos, though Webb himself was gay and lived most of his life with his mother. You wonder how he might have been as a father--like the men in these films or perhaps like Mr. Belvedere? Who knows. All I know is that his adult life, outside of acting, sounded rather lonely.

Totally not funny 'comedy' which is loud, strident and deeply offensive. Webb does his standard schtick but juiced up to at least a 12 out of 10. Bizarre is one of the kinder things that can be said about this sorry mess. The young lovers are duds, hordes of faceless youngsters scurry about and Coburn looks like he's dead. The way is lips swell and sag is alarming. Too much embalming fluid? Art direction and costume design gone crazy with every set an explosion of faux Victorian rainbow colors. Smug, superior, condescending Hollyweird, just like today's version. Prehistoric woke.

Clifton Webb was always a difficult person to cast - in the 1940s and 1950s they just did not make movies where he would have fit perfectly: films where his character was openly gay. There are elements in his films (especially in LAURA and THE DARK CORNER and THE RAZOR'S EDGE) that suggest a high strung, waspy, near - homosexual type. So does his Mr. Belvedere. But throughout the 1950s his films concentrated on him as a father (frequently with large families) and a husband - even (in DREAMBOAT) a sexy movie idol of the silent period! This film is of those "family oriented" comedies that Webb made in the 1950s. As pointed out, it was based on a Broadway comedy, and it probably was purchased with Webb in mind. With his ability to personify intellectual types, he fits the free-thinking Horace Pennypacker.

The Pennypacker family was actually quite distinguished in 19th Century Pennsylvania. One of them, General Galusha Pennypacker was a American Civil War hero, and Samuel Pennypacker was Governor of Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1907. As to an actual historical figure named Horace Pennypacker I cannot say (although one of the reviews on this thread suggest there may have been some reality about the situation regarding the bigamy.

However, the play turned film was dull. Webb tried to be funny (even skating at one point), but the dialog really was not very good. The best moment in the film is between Richard Deacon (a member of an organization like The Society to Suppress Vice or something like that) and Charles Coburn. Deacon has found that Pennypacker has been passing around (presumably freely) a booklet of a mildly risqué nature concerning biology. It has flip pictures (you flip the pictures and they look like they move). Unfortunately Deacon has never had Horace Pennypacker pointed out to him. So when he sees Charles Coburn leaving his grandson's (Webb's) home, he concludes that Coburn is Horace Pennypacker. He confronts Coburn, and asks, "Are you Mr. Pennypacker?" "Yes", says the mildly annoyed Coburn. "Of Pennypacker & Co.?", asks Deacon. "Yes, yes...what do you want with me?!", shouts Coburn. "THIS!", says a triumphant Deacon - he flips the pages of the book in front of Coburn's face. "BaH!!", shouts Coburn, who knocks the book out of Deacon's hands. "You assaulted me...yes you did!!", says Deacon and he signals a waiting policeman who drags a protesting Coburn away (he later apparently straightens out the mistake, for he shows up to confront Webb before the end of the film).

It was a mildly amusing moment in the film - and the best one, unfortunately. One has to admit that THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYPACKER was one of the weaker features that Clifton Webb made in Hollywood.

Mr. Pennypacker of Pennypacker Prime Products had two factories where he has divided his time for 20 years, one in Harrisburg and one in Philadelphia. He spends one month at each and never mixes up his schedule for the main reason that he has a family in each town. Quite prolific, he has a total of 17 children between his two families. His eldest daughter in The Harrisburg household decides to marry the son of a minister unexpectedly...and they have to do it in a week as he has been assigned a rectory to report to out of town.

This throws off Mr. Pennypacker's schedule and when an emergency occurs in Philadelphia, a son there is forced to track him down...and chaos ensues.

I think this was supposed to be a moral lesson...but I felt like it tried to be cute but fell flat.