It's a Wonderful World

Drunken tycoon Willie Heywood gets married for the fourth time. Private detective Guy Johnson (James Stewart) is his hired body man. One night, Willie stumbles upon the murder of his mistress Dolores Gonzalez. It's a setup by his new wife Vivian and her lover Al Mallon. Guy quickly grabs Willie and hides him from the police. Willie promises to pay Guy $100k to solve the murder. They are quickly arrested but Guy manages to escape. He kidnaps poet Edwina Corday (Claudette Colbert) as he makes a getaway.

The pairing is great. The screwball comedy plot is a little too screwy. The initial kidnapping is a little rough and they left behind the little dog. The glasses are hilarious. The wacky rambling adventure has its ups and its downs. Mostly, one has to love the comic chemistry of Stewart and Colbert.

I waited for months for this to come on TCM because Leonard Maltin said it was a "very, very funny" screwball comedy. He must have seen a different movie. This film has plenty of screwballs in it, alright, but the "plot" is confusing, wandering all over the place with no clear direction, the characters are irritating, and the dialog is stupid -- I can't believe Ben Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz couldn't do better than this. Not funny, just plain silly. A waste of time.

Extremely funny madcap comedy starring two of the greatest stars of the classic period of American film: tongue-in-cheek Claudette Colbert and good fella Jimmy Stewart.

Stewart plays a detective on the run, who's being chased by the police, because of his involvement as an accessory in a murder case, in which the principal accused is his client. Colbert is a poetess who `accidentally' gets involved in Stewart's escapade from the cops, reluctantly at first, eventually becoming a runaway herself and falling in love with Stewart, and causing him a lot of trouble in the process. Her character is joy to behold and is hilariously played with top expertise by this gifted comedienne, in one of the last original screwballs from the '30s.

This movie is a wonderful example of classic Hollywood comedy at its best, with top performances all around, by seasoned pros (Guy Kibbee, Nat Pendleton, et al). It's non-stop fun from start to finish, and by the way, Stewart plays a much rougher guy than his usual more likeable persona in this period -he even gets the chance of knocking around Colbert. It's a pity that it's not available on VHS or DVD. You may have the luck of watching it on TCM.

What makes this film a surprise is not that it's good. After all, a romantic screwball caper starring Claudette Colbert & Jimmy Stewart, directed by W.S. Van Dyke from a script by Ben Hecht -- how could it *not* be good? No, what surprised me about this film is that as good as it is, it's not currently available on VHS or DVD.

Like Van Dyke's The Thin Man and Hecht's His Girl Friday, It's a Wonderful World combines elements of crime films with the romantic screwball comedy, and the result is both gripping & laugh-out-loud funny.

In their only on-screen pairing, Colbert & Stewart play off each other beautifully; she's the comedic foil to his tough-talking detective, and their romance is handled realistically and with patience. The supporting cast in uniformly excellent, with standout performances from Nat Pendleton & Edgar Kennedy as the bumbling cops on Stewart's trail, and Guy Kibbee as Stewart's partner & friend.

Watching this film, it's hard to believe that it's one of *four* that Van Dyke made in 1939 (especially since one of the others is the even-better Stand Up and Fight). Van Dyke was famous for shooting films quickly, but his direction never seems hurried. A director-for-hire, he was gifted at serving both art and commerce, satisfying both audiences and his bosses at MGM.

Thanks to Turner Classic Movies for giving me the opportunity to see this film, which as I mentioned is otherwise unavailable. Here's hoping that Warner Bros., which owns the rights, releases it soon on home video.

Score: EIGHT out of TEN

James Stewart tries his hand at screwball comedy in "It's a Wonderful World," a 1939 film also starring Claudette Colbert, directed by W.S. Van Dyke with a screenplay by Ben Hecht. Supporting players include Guy Kibbee, Nat Pendleton, Sidney Blackmer, and Ernest Truex.

Stewart plays a detective, Guy Johnson, whose client (Truex) is charged with a murder he didn't commit. Guy is sentenced to prison, too, as an accessory. On the way to prison via train, he spots a clue in the newspaper and escapes. On the run, he encounters a poetess, Edwina Corday (Colbert), an attractive if clumsy woman, and he has to take her along. The two get into all sorts of trouble on the road to trying to prove Guy's client didn't murder anyone.

This film has all the elements of a great screwball comedy, and a lot of potential, but for some reason, it doesn't quite hang together. The script is a little confusing and lets the actors down. It's reminiscent of "It Happened One Night," especially when they're hanging out by the fence, and Colbert's presence indicates to me that the powers that be had that connection in mind.

The performances are all excellent, with Stewart and Colbert very funny. It seems that both these actors could do just about anything. With a little bit tighter script, this might have been a real classic. As it is, it's enjoyable and has some good moments.