Fantasma vivo

I knew that something was amiss. Pat O'Brien, in a leading role? No gangsters? Not a police officer. Really!

Here he stars in this pure stinker as a husband who loves his wife but forgets her birthday. The wife, played by Ellen Drew, looked so much like Eve Arden in many scenes.

How coincidental that as he forgot her birthday, her divorced friend from college, enters the movie. Played by Rudy Valee, the guy wants Drew.

O'Brien storms out of the house and to the local bar. There he meets a poor drunkard chap, both get plastered, exchange clothes and papers and go on a drunken ride, ending in death for the other guy and total confusion for the rest of the film.

The film basically becomes slapstick. O'Brien lands on a riverboat and meets Adolph Menjou, who convinces him to act like a ghost.

The two return to the house just as the will is being read. When O'Brien told Drew to continue her life, Valee immediately proposes marriage. O'Brien acts as the ghost to "terrorize" Drew and mayhem and general wackiness ensues.

Rate this *1/2 and be off.

Pat O'Brien has been married to Ellen Drew since they graduated from college. When her previous boyfriend, Rudy Vallee shows up, O'Brien is jealous, goes out on a tear, and hooks up with perpetual drunk Jack Norton. Somehow they switch clothes, and Norton is killed and O'Brien winds up on Adolphe Menjou's showboat. When O'Brien is declared dead, Menjou persuades him into various shenanigans to reintroduce himself gradually to Miss Drew.

O'Brien drew this assignment as the first of his five-picture contract with RKO. He certainly seems willing enough to try anything, but his matter-of-fact delivery does not mix well with the increasing hysteria of the situations he gets into, as he impersonates a ghost, his uncle from Ireland, and eventually an amnesiac.

It's one of those comedies that doesn't bear much thinking about. Instead, the thing to do is to enjoy Menjou, his speed and grace as a confident confidence man, fast-talking O'Brien into these dumb ideas. In many ways the energy is that of the first screen version of The Front Page, in which Menjou played Walter Burns and O'Brien Hildy Johnson.

There were only a very few that gave a review of this film. With the exception of 1 or 2 reviews; the rest were very negative about this film. Not all films need to be serious dramas. Within the comedy genre there are degrees of comedy. For me I generally don't seek out comedies at all. However, merely by accident I saw this movie and stopped to watch it and was not disappointed. Pat O'Brien and Adolphe Menjou, and even Ellen Drew did a fine job with a film that was just merely for fun. For this the cast did deliver.

A few reviews thought and were disappointed because O'Brien was not playing the role of a cop, etc. An actor is an actor and for the most part do not want to be locked in to a certain genre. In this film he was young enough to play this kind a role. If you are looking for a few laughs and some fine acting check this film out I don't think you will be disappointed.

Sure It's A Stretch! But it's still funny. It even has a pratfall.

Adolphe Menjou plays a mischievous rogue and Pat O'Brien plays himself as always. They meet after Pat's supposed death and Adolphe takes control of the situation with wacky results.

As Menjou says, "What a Magnificent Mess!" It starts out slow but it picks up with increasing momentum until you wish it could slow down. But it can't.

It's a house of card built upon shifting sands. Situations are extremely contrived but it makes for a delightfully wild ride.

I wanted to write this review because there were only 2 reviews, both somewhat negative. Pat O'Brien does not always have to play a cop. He may always be Pat O'Brien, but he fits into this role very plausibly. He is, after all, pulling a fast one, and no one can pull a fast one like Pat O'Brien.

In any case, Adolphe Menjou steals this movie away from him. Adolphe is a very versatile actor and he is one of the few that could pull of his role with any kind of believability.

Michael O'Flaherty 'Speed' McBride (Pat O'Brien) forgets about his wife Connie's birthday which causes friction in the marriage. It doesn't help with the arrival of Connie's old admirer Gordon Tolliver (Rudy Vallée). Speed gets drunk at a bar and lets another man drive his car. They drive off a pier. The other man is killed but Michael is mistakenly identified. He is instead rescued by a passing river showboat. The boat leader Kismet (Adolphe Menjou) convinces him to play dead and haunt his wife in an effort to save his marriage.

First, Speed is not that great of a husband. It would be helpful if the marriage is worth saving. I have no evidence either way. Second, the premise is ridiculous. A silly story is not the end of the world. I'm just never fully convinced with the first problem that all the silly screwball antics amount to nothing much. I don't find it funny.