Love Crazy

"Love Crazy" is a rather uneven comedy starring that wonderful team of Myrna Loy and William Powell, along with Jack Carson and Florence Bates. The film starts out one way - a madly in love couple celebrating their fourth anniversary - and then goes another - divorce court.

When Stephen Ireland (Powell) runs into an old girlfriend (Gail Patrick) living in his building, the fun begins. They spend the evening talking, but due to a variety of circumstances, Susan (Loy) doesn't believe his story and decides to file for divorce immediately. Stephen does everything he can to get his wife back, but as the divorce becomes close to being finalized, he feigns insanity to buy more time.

Powell is great at slapstick, of course, and there's plenty of it as he slips on the rug his mother-in-law (Bates) gave them and swings upside down from trees. The extra little kick here comes from his scenes in drag, which are phenomenal. Powell is perfect as his own sister and even shaved his trademark mustache! One of the funniest scenes occurs when a thread from his fake breast gets caught on the spindle of the record player and unravels.

There's little to be said about Powell and Loy - they are always a delight. Jack Carson has a great role as a neighbor interested in Loy. "Willoughby, Ward Willoughby," is how he introduces himself. He's wonderful. Florence Bates is appropriately annoying. Gail Patrick, with her good looks and magnificent voice, has a part that actually disappears for a good deal of the film, but returns later. She's excellent. But Powell in drag is a revelation and the best thing about the film for me.

I read recently with interest that Don Adams' voice in "Get Smart" was actually modeled on Powell's speaking patterns and pitch. Of course, during this film, I couldn't stop thinking about it and realizing the similarity. Don Adams couldn't have chosen a better model.

Worth the price of admission is seeing William Powell pretending to be insane in order to postpone divorce proceedings--and then, to top that, disguise himself as a female relative in what has to be one of the funniest madcap screwball comedies ever!

Jack Carson, Gail Patrick and the wonderful Florence Bates (as the mother-in-law from hell) are captivating in supporting roles. It's a riot from beginning to end--fast-paced and sure to tickle your funnybone--if you have one.

Powell and Loy were a wonderful team as Nick and Nora Charles--but this is their finest screwball comedy and they're both at the top of their form. Well worth viewing, it's a surprisingly little known gem.

Stephen Ireland (William Powell) has been deliriously happy with his wife, Susan (Myrna Loy), for four years, but a series of misunderstandings begin on their fourth anniversary, involving a stalled elevator, Steve's old flame (who has just moved in downstairs) and a forgotten taxi cab. They end with Susan leaving Steve and taking up with the neighboring apartment dweller (Jack Carson), an expert archer who works best in his undershirt. Susan's mother (Florence Bates) is thrilled with this new choice, but Steve is out to win back his wife despite all obstacles. He pretends to be mad in order to delay the divorce, but winds up in an insane asylum. He escapes but is forced to dress as a woman and pretend to be his own sister in order to evade the police and win back his wife.

This delightful screwball comedy is solid and laugh-filled enough to please anyone, but hasn't got quite enough zest to rank with the best in the genre. Powell and Loy together guarantee good entertainment. And if they aren't enough this film is bursting at the seams with familiar character actors.

By the way, you know that thing people do when they mimic insanity, the thing that provides a running gag in this film? It involves running one's index finger up and down over one's lips to make a noise that sounds like "beedeebeedeebeedeebee." A friend of mine has coined a term for this bit of business: the "lip flubby." We need a term for this thing, so please help spread it.

In watching Love Crazy I was amazed at how the film picked up in the second half. In the first half William Powell and Myrna Loy are the usual happy married couple, but through some typical movie situations, some of them very forced, they wind in divorce court.

Powell realizes that things have just gotten completely out of hand and wants to apply a break to the divorce. But Loy won't hear of it. So Powell decides to put on a crazy act because if insanity is claimed a thirty day hold is put on the proceedings.

Sad for Powell, but hilarious for the viewer the scheme succeeds all to well. The second half of the film reaches a frantic pace that comes close to something Mel Brooks might put together. Powell is first trying to prove he's insane and then very much trying to prove he's not.

Such wonderful supporting players as Florence Bates, the mother-in-law from hell, neighbors slinky Gail Patrick and slow burn Donald MacBride; blow-hard Jack Carson, a redundancy if there ever was one, Viennese psychiatrist Sig Ruman, make this Powell-Loy film a joy to watch and one of the better ones where they're not Nick and Nora Charles.

Powell does more physical type comedy in this film than in any other I've ever seen. Even more than Libeled Lady because it had only that one classic scene in the trout stream. Here Powell is engaging in all kinds of screwy behavior because he's trying to convince people he's just that. Topped off by him shaving his famous mustache and getting into drag to play his own make believe sister.

Great screwball comedy one of the best of its kind.

One of my favourite screwball comedies, what with William Powell and Myrna Loy and great MGM cast and production values who could ask for anything more? Well, maybe a more even plotting, but on such a manic roller-coaster ride, you don't really have time to care.

Happy couple celebrating their 4th wedding anniversary are plunged into suspicion when Powell's slinky ex Gail Patrick and world champion bow and arrower Jack Carson (keeping his torso free) appear in their lives. Filing for divorce ensues, the only way Powell can stop it is to feign insanity. Things inevitably and delightfully go from bad to worse. And it all could have been avoided by an intelligible explanation by him to her of why there was a taxi cab waiting for him outside the hotel! Is a wife who's so ready to call her previously faithful and adoring husband a liar worthy of such a chase? But this is Powell & Loy and you know that everything is all right throughout and everything will be all right by the end because they obviously love each other so much. Carson put in a solid performance, it would have been a poorer film without his knockabout honesty. Powell and Carson keep hilariously jibing each other as nuts with bbble bbble bbble's, but I suppose some serious people today who have inexplicably watched this might not find the subject of madness treated the way they'd like. Phhhffft - political correctness is lunacy anyway! Favourite bits: Powell's bedraggled return from posting his mother-in-law's letter; freeing his feet from the tyranny of his enemy shoes; the method of escape from the sanatorium; Loy's elegant poise throughout in contrast to Powell's slapstick.

It's certainly not perfect but it's still a gem, a delightful 98 minutes of nonsense.