La moglie domata

"You made me love you" is a brilliant comedy that made me laugh harder than I have at a movie in quite a while.

Warning: It took me about 10 minutes to get into the vibe of the film, as it's still very close cousin to the West End. At that point, I was on the verge of turning the movie off for good, but that little voice inside told me to be patient, and a bit more open minded... it was worth it!

Once I got over my own prejudices -- I usually like a cinematic rather than theatrical experience -- I found myself roaring with laughter. I caught on to the Taming of the Shrew overtones fairly quickly. Only, in this case, it was better than Shakespeare, in that I was roaring with laughter.

The best part is, even though I had a pretty good idea of how the whole production would turn out, the story line did hold me in suspense at the key dramatic moment. I could see the timer on my video player winding down in the final 10 minutes and just kept on wondering: How are they going to resolve this thing by the end of the movie?

They did resolve it, with simple, brilliant cinema:

Lights, camera, action.

Stanley Lupino, the father of Ida Lupino, had been a big West End star for fifteen years when he made this starring vehicle with Thelma Todd, looking as good as she ever did and falling right in with the comedy of the situation. Lupino, like his cousin Lupino Lane, was a high-energy performer and they not only looked alike, they moved alike, Although Stanley does not run around on the ceilings or make inanimate objects come alive, this movie starts and never stops. Neither are the songs really top-notch, but they are presented very engagingly.

What makes this movie a real find is that Alfred Hitchcock and his writers seem to have cribbed extensively from it for THE 39 STEPS, particularly in the Public House scenes. I wonder where co-writer Launder, who later co-wrote Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES -- pay-off? -- lifted it from.

Director Monty Banks, himself a star of American comedy in the 1920s, can be spotted as the driver of the world's worst taxi. Keep an eye out for this one -- the Library of Congress has just made a new print.