One Night in Lisbon

Fred MacMurray is an American pilot in London during the Blitz. He ducks into an air raid shelter and encounters Madeleine Carroll, whom he tries to court with duck calls and reminiscences of life in a cave ten thousand years earlier.

She is naturally bewildered, but since this is a Paramount movie, we know that eventually hands across the ocean will win. Unfortunately, the story involves a trip to Portugal, spies trying to steal a letter, and MacMurray's ex-wife. Miss Carroll spends most of the first half of the movie being confused and distraught, and the second half being amorous and distraught, trying to make sense in a world full of unexploded bombs, good-looking John Loder, advice from May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn and Billie Burke. The rest of the cast is up to this American-style nonsense, but not, alas, Miss Carroll.

Madeleine Carroll and Fred MacMurray were good actors....so you really cannot blame them for "One Night in Lisbon". Who I can blame are the writers, as the story and, especially, the characters simply make no sense at all.

When the story begins, Dwight (MacMurray) and Leonora (Carroll) are stuck in a bomb shelter together during the London blitz of 1940-41. Instead of acting like human beings, Dwight starts behaving oddly....as if he's got a massive head injury. Instead of either sticking to himself or striking up a conversation, he begins making duck calls. Who in the heck would ever do this?! Does this make sense?! No...nor do many of the pair's behaviors throughout the film. Dwight is just bizarre....and Leonora falling for him defies common sense. This continues throughout the film and ultimately leads to a supposedly funny time in Lisbon as the pair are chased about by Nazi agents.

The bottom line is that while I love old time Hollywood, I am not so in love with it that I won't call a movie out for bad writing. This one simply is a bad film....unbelievable and silly...but not in a pleasing way.

This 1941 comedy romance is set in London and Lisbon before the U.S. entered World War II. Made by Paramount in Hollywood, it has some scenes of the bombing of London; and the studio did a good job creating a very British looking set for wartime England. It's important to note this aspect of the film because it's the premise for the meeting of the two stars, and for a later entanglement over espionage that takes place in Lisbon. Ergo, the film's title, "One Night in Lisbon."

Fred MacMurray plays Dwight Houston from Texas (where else?). He's a civilian pilot, apparently a member of the ferry service that was flying American-made bombers over to England to help the Allies with the war before the U.S. entered the war. Madeleine Carroll plays a Scottish woman, Leonora Perrycoate. Her parents have retreated to their Scotland estate during the bombing of London. She resides in their considerable London digs with a maid, Florence, played by Lady May Witty, who is to look after her. Leonora has a British suitor, Navy Commander Peter Walmsley (played by John Loder), so all the ingredients are there for a screwball comedy.

But Paramount put too much into this film to make it work well. The story and script bounce all over the place. MacMurray and Carroll do well with their roles, but the characters don't quite work. He is almost oblivious to the war going on around them, and is too flippant about it to be believed. He calls her "Steve," after some far-fetched cockamamie story about their reincarnation. Both characters are very quirky – too much so. Which then detracts from the humor that's in the script – what there is of it. The film focuses more on their quirkiness at the expense of a clever, witty and funny script. And, the goofy shenanigans are just slightly that and not very funny. The best lines in the film are uttered by the supporting cast – Edmund Gwen as Lord Fitzleigh and Billie Burke as Catherine Enfilden.

This movie is based on a British play that had to be much better on stage than on film. Hollywood at the time was making British stage plays into films as a way to support Britain's war efforts. The movie has a couple of good patriotic scenes that are clearly intended as propaganda. The film that I saw was in rough shape and had poor quality. It's a stretch to give this film six stars, but I do so for the supporting cast and the comedy that works.