L'uomo che capiva le donne

Nunnally Johnson, one of the great talents of the movie business in the 1930s and 1940s eased up for several years, and then came back to write and direct this immobile lump of a motion picture..... not helped in the least, by the way, by the fact that the color has faded on the print shown this evening on Turner Classics Movie, going all pink.

Into this mess, he injected some very talented performers, particularly Henry Fonda, but then seems apparently to have directed everyone in a monotone, from megalomaniac Henry Fonda, who plays Leslie Caron's starmaker husband, to Myron McCormick, who plays his platitude-spouting assistant, to Cesare Danova, who plays her seducer. Caron gets to weep and screech a bit, but that's about the limit of emotions on display. Everyone speaks in long speeches all the time.

A thorough-going stinker. Avoid this one.

The best thing I can say about The Man Who Understood Women is it is not the worst comedy I ever saw: Machete, Jewel Robbery, Candy ( 1968), and Damsels In Distress ( all on my 10 worst films list) nor the worst movie I ever saw about Show Business (No Time For Comedy says hi). But It is the worst film of Henry Fonda's career and I despised the movie. The worst part? Fonda in clown makeup which is more cringe worthy ( and longer) then Octopussy with James Bond in clown makeup. On to Leslie Caron. I must admit I never got what other people saw in Leslie Caron: There are Frenchwomen so much more beautiful and better actresses ( Sophie Marceau, Catherine Deneuve, Denise Darcel and Julie Delpy to name a few), but here she is at her worst. Why? Her constant crying throughout this movie is sickening, which is why I had to fast forward through half the movie. Did I forget to mention, there is not one character ( especially Fonda and Caron) that you can like ( or even care about)? While it is not the worst movie I ever saw ( the ones I mentioned earlier plus Reality Bites and Walk On The Wild Side are worse, it it still makes my 10 worst films list and although I cannot rate it as no stars ( the minimum is 1), it still deserves 0 stars. 0/10 stars.

Henry Fonda nearly quit the movies after getting a look at this thing, a backstage-Hollywood comedy-drama by Nunnally Johnson, loosely adapted from Romain Gary's novel "The Colors of the Day". Johnson also produced and directed the picture, and therefore deserves most of the blame for what's on the screen. Famous actor-director Fonda becomes smitten with struggling actress Leslie Caron after watching her do a screen-test and quickly turns her into a formidable star. It's at this point in the film where we see fake movie titles zig-zagging across the screen ("Between Heaven and Hell", "Mademoiselle X"), signifying success, and later get a preposterous scene of Fonda shouting down Caron's agents for their lack of direction (isn't he running the whole show?). Fonda compares his lovely discovery to Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, but we just don't see it. Leslie Caron is attractive here, but sullen and with a deep, monotonous voice. When she supposedly wins an Academy Award, we don't see that triumph either (the statue is super-imposed over a starry background--along with MORE zig-zagging movie titles!). Johnson obviously knows the world of show-biz inside-out, but here he gives us the outer-workings of the movie-making world without any of the inner-workings. Caron and Fonda wed, but she quickly tires of his one-track mind--she wants to be a newlywed forever--and runs off with an Air Force Major while in France. Fonda wants the handsome home wrecker dead and orders a hit on him, but changes his mind when he thinks his wife might be killed too, and so chases after the Mutt and Jeff team he's in-cahoots with while dressed as a harlequin clown. It's too silly for words. *1/2 from ****

Amen to all the negative comments above: really dreadful. I have seen a reference to an original 135-minute running time for this film, which seems to have been reduced to 105 minutes soon after release. I also note that TCM showed a pan-and-scan version on Monday, October 12, without any mention of that by Robert Osborne. Does anyone know more about that matter? Anyway, as someone who has enjoyed almost every other performance by Henry Fonda (especially Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, The Lady Eve, The Ox Bow Incident, Advise and Consent)and Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi, Fanny) I deeply regret that they found themselves involved in this disaster.

I don't give this movie as low a rating that many had. It was an ok movie. It's listed as a comedy, that's the reason I wanted to watch it. But it's not a funny movie at all. If you want laughs from a movie, watch something else, this is not for you.