Papai Não Sabe Nada

"Take Her, She's Mine" is a comedy film that reflects family concerns during a period of cultural change in the American scene of the early 1960s. It shows parental concern - mostly that of a dad, for his daughter who has come of age, in a time just as the counterculture was beginning. It sort of reflects the last of an age of innocence before the sexual revolution of the 1960s that followed. So, modern audiences may find this film rather silly. Yet, it's not a bad picture of the parental concern of the time, and somewhat of the foray of the more innocent of youth into the cultural turnover. This is before the onset of widespread drug use and free sex that would become a part of the scene over the next decade. That concern of parents soon became a real concern of law enforcement and the country as a whole.

Knowing something about that may help modern audiences understand a little more the premise of the plot of this film. And, then enjoy the comedy, because there is some very good comedy here. It has a pleasant mixture of humorous dialog and funny antics or situations in which the dad gets entangled. James Stewart plays that dad, Frank Michaelson. Aside from a little over-doing it in the imagination and worrying frenzy, he's very good as the fall guy. Thinking like the kids and young folks of his time, he would seem a little buffoonish. But, then, just at the right moment he becomes the dad who trusts and stands by his daughter, Mollie. Some of the student protests that Mollie gets in bear signs of the times. In one, she and others are carrying signs that read, "The Berlin wall must go."

Sandra Dee does very well as the 19-year-old Mollie Michaelson who goes off to college; and then at 20 goes off to study art in Paris. Dee was the most popular young star in the early 1960s. MGM promoted her marriage to popular singer and actor Bobby Darrin, but it wasn't to last. By the end of the decade, her star had fallen and she later succumbed to alcoholism and had medical and psychological problems. She died of kidney disease at age 62 in 2005.

Audrey Meadows plays Frank's wife, Ann Michaelson, bet her role hardly has more than an occasional line when Frank is at home in between his long-distance trips to try to straighten out or save Mollie. John McGiver is Hector G. Ivor, the vice chairman of the local California board of education, of which Frank is the chairman. No one could play a straight-faced character for comedy better than McGiver, and every time the camera closes in on him here it brings a smile if not a chuckle. And Robert Morley as Mr. Pope-Jones is his usual very funny character, although this is somewhat of a unique role, as many of his comedy personas area.

All of these characters, the funny situations that Frank gets into, and the dialog make this an entertaining and fun film to watch. Here are some favorite lines.

Hector Ivor, "Honestly, sometimes I really wonder where the papers get all this stuff they print. Can't make it all up, can they?"

Frank Michaelson, at the airport, "All right - how much over weight?" Anne Michaelson, "None." Frank, "None? With that load?" Anne, "No, you see ... " Frank, "All right, don't tell me. Don't tell me. I know there's something crooked about it, but I don't wanna hear it. Not at a time like this, anyway."

Frank Michaelson, "Holy chihuahua!"

Hector Ivor, "You'd think they'd flunk her." Frank Michaelson, "They did."

Frank Michaelson, "Now, I have to be the first to admit that I don't know very much about modern art, but I happen to be one of the outstanding authorities in the State of California on hogwash."

Frank Michaelson, "There's just one catch to it." Anne Michaelson, "What's that?" Frank, "You and I won't be able to eat her senior year."

Frank Michaelson, "Do you know what Life (magazine) means when they say protégé?" Anne Michaelson, "Wellll.." Frank, "When they say protégé, they're winking. It's their way of slipping you the dirt. When they say protégé, what they're really saying..." Anne, "Okay, okay!"

Hector Ivor, "I got into a little jam like that once." Frank Michaelson, "Hector, telling me your troubles at this point would be like complaining to Noah about a drizzle."

Frank Michaelson, "How old is the punk?" Mollie Michaelson, "He's not a punk." Frank, "All right, how old is the non-punk?"

Mr. Pope-Jones, "Waiter - do you know who that fellow looks like?" Waiter, "Pardon." Pope-Jones, "Henry Fonda. Henry Fonda, the American film star. Will you ever forget him in 'Gone with the Wind?'"

Mr. Pope-Jones, "Never try this sort of thing with a hangover."

Mr. Pope-Jones, "Your father's right, dear. There's nothing shiftier than a lover's promise."

An all around fun movie from a time when they didn't have to rely on foul language, sex, and violence for their plots. I had never seen Sandra Dee in anything other than her Gidget roles. Wish they made movies like that today - a comedy that was actually funny. :)

It's a special meeting of the Pacific Palisades Board of Education. President Frank Michaelson (James Stewart) is being pushed to resign after some unflattering newspaper stories. In his defence, he recounts the whole story starting with his teenage daughter Mollie (Sandra Dee) and her influence on the male sex who are all grabby hands. The freshman college girl heads off into the bohemian world followed by her overprotective father.

I like Stewart's comedy. He's an old duddy and he knows it. It's funny that way. The Mr. Smith jokes are good fun. It's 50's trying to deal with the 60's and doing it in a safe way. Jimmy gets in a few chuckles but Dee is a bit stiff. She's playing innocence as clueless without the comedy. One may notice Bob Denver and he has a fun scene with Jimmy. Overall, it's the lightest of comedies with limited effect and a little long. The movie only comes alive with Jimmy.

It's been commented on by many critics that James Stewart has been the actor most partnered with top directors. His films with Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and Frank Capra have been studied over and over again. But it would surprise many to learn that after the eight he did with Anthony Mann, the second place finisher is Henry Koster with five films with James Stewart.

The five films are Harvey, No Highway, Mr. Hobbs Goes On a Vacation, Dear Brigitte and Take Her She's Mine. And then they further subdivide as Stewart plays three types of character. He's the absent minded professor in No Highway and Dear Brigitte and the harassed father of girls in Mr. Hobbs and Take Her She's Mine. Both of which he plays to perfection. And of course there is Harvey in a class all by itself.

Father is the last to know that his daughter has grown up to be a "dish." But that is in fact what Sandra Dee has done. Apparently just hanging around has put all the boys' hormones into an exponential overdrive. Poor Stewart is walking innocently into all kinds of grief trying to protect Dee's virtue. The California based Stewart's concern has taken him to New England and then to Paris.

Some pretty funny things happen to poor Jimmy. But I think you'll like best the way his costume falls apart on a chartered boat in the Seine due to some bad advice that he gets from a fellow hotel guest Robert Morley. Still cracks me up 43 years after first seeing it.

Audrey Meadows plays the patient wife and mother to Stewart and Dee borrowing a little from Alice Kramden. And I think today's audience will appreciate seeing Bob Denver essentially reprising his role as a Maynard G. Krebs type beatnik. Look for James Brolin in a tiny role as one of the hormonally charged college kids.

Koster and Stewart work well together. Maybe at some point his partnership with Stewart will get some study as well.

Much as I always love a Jimmy Stewart film, this is a rather lame comedy, interesting mainly for an early Jerry Goldsmith score. Sandra Dee tries hard to shake her golly Molly character she played in A Summer Place (she is named Molly here too) and Audrey Meadows does well in her perfunctory role, but the script is just too lame to engender interest.

A primary flaw in my opinion is that Stewart's character was too unlikeable. The main character of the concerned father should have been more hesitant about interfering in his daughter's college life. It would have engendered more laughs and maintained sympathy with the character. But here Stewart's character is far too aggressive and possessive to the point of irritation. His character would come across as such even more so in our more enlightened times. Yelling at his daughter, yelling at her boyfriend, calling him a punk several times in the film and otherwise meddling in what should be his daughter's "space" as they would later say (the film is from 1963 so just short of the hippie generation) hardly endears him to a modern audience, in my opinion.

In a dated film like this it's difficult to judge how flat the comedy was in 1963, but words like "virgin" would hardly gain a laugh today. Some scenes seem especially dated, such as the coffee house scene with Bob Denver as a folksinger, the fast French cars, while it's hard to imagine that a writer would attempt a laugh by having the parents listen to a record at 331/3 when it's supposed to be played at 78 or 45. Like how desperate can writers be to include something as ludicrous as that for laughs. It might have been funny when electronic music was first invented but not in 1963! Similarly lame was the scene in the dorm with the French girl students, as if having a group of students yelling in French was supposed to elicit bowls of laughter.

But any film starring Jimmy Stewart, in my view the greatest of all American film actors, including Marlon Brando, can never be a waste of time.