Le nigaud magnifique

If you've read my reviews, you know I have a saying about Henry Fonda: he's gorgeous until he opens his mouth. Well, folks, I'm happy to report that there's a movie where he's so cute his winy voice just doesn't matter: The Magnificent Dope. He's absolutely adorable!

Don Ameche plays the head of a success school that's about to go out of business. He doesn't have any students and he's in debt to his eyeballs, but his faithful sidekick Edward Everett Horton and his patient girlfriend Lynn Bari help him cook up a scheme to gain national publicity: set up a contest to find the biggest loser and turn him into a success. Henry Fonda wins the prize. He's an unemployed, loafing fisherman from a small town. But the only trouble is, he's happy being a flop! He loves being lazy and has no interest in becoming ambitious. Don sends his girlfriend to motivate Hank, but she does too good of a job...

Even though he's supposed to be a terrible coach with horrid advice, some of the things Don says are very funny and quite true. "Wives seldom believe in insurance. Widows always do." He emphasizes the importance of a clean-cut appearance, a firm handshake, and a confident smile. So even though he's not exactly the hero in the story, you're still rooting for him to have a happy ending. Not as much as you're on Team Fonda, though. Who would have thought the normally wooden Henry would be able to act so naturally goofy?

With cute, peppy silver screen music by four great composers, Emil Newman, Leigh Harline, Cyril J. Mockridge, and David Raksin, and an adorable ending, this forgotten gem is not to be missed. It's by far my favorite Henry Fonda movie - if this were the first movie I'd seen him in, I'd love him forever. What a cutie pie!

...but fun just the same. It is almost escapist entertainment due to the fact that it just ignores the fact that WWII is going on at the time. Don Ameche plays Dwight Dawson, the owner of a school for success in New York City that doesn't really teach anything other than self confidence. Like the Wizard of Oz, he doesn't seem to be passing out anything that people don't have inside already. His business is down, and so he decides to run an ad looking for the biggest failure in America, using it as the basis for a publicity campaign to turn the contest winner into a success via his methods. Even this he does wrong, though, because who he ultimately picks isn't someone who can't get ahead, but someone who is happy with not getting ahead - a guy from Vermont (Henry Fonda as Tad Page) who rents fishing boats in the summer and thinks about summer in the winter.

The prize is five hundred dollars and a course at Ameche's business school. Tad is interested in the five hundred dollars only - he wants to buy a new fire engine for his community. However, he is perfectly happy with his life as it is and is not interested in changing. So now Dawson and his fiancée (Lynn Bari as Claire) have to convince Fonda to go to the classes, prevent him from convincing the other students they don't really need these courses to be happy, and get him to be a success.

A romantic triangle forms, rather predictable comical consequences ensue - Tad Page rubs off more on New York than New York rubs off on Tad Page, and I really never saw how Tad Page was either really magnificent or a dope.

Darryl F. Zanuck, head of Fox studios, was big on message pictures and films with a historical context, and this is a rather rare example of a film done at his studio during his reign that is set in the present day that is not a noir. It's enjoyable stuff with Fonda doing his familiar likable every-man character and with Ameche as the debonair little weasel that you just can't bring yourself to truly dislike - much like a ferret in a tuxedo. A recommended rarity.

Peter Gibbons, meet Thadeus "call me Tad" Page. Selling life insurance may have been the 1940's equivalent of a cubicle job, but in any case Tad Page doesn't take to it much better than Peter Gibbons did in "Office Space", and they both appreciate fishing. Henry Fonda is the perfect personality for demonstrating the value of well-timed laziness. Don Ameche was either Alexander Graham Bell or a pleasant schemer in his films (until "Trading Places" at least) and his Dwight Dawson-ambitious-man-with-a-gimmick is nicely drawn here. I also appreciated the subtle manner in which the tune "Lazy Bones" was woven unobtrusively into the background during Fonda's scenes. Watch for it on TCM; worth your time.

A refreshing, funny film about a different kind of American dream - laziness.

Dwight Dawson (Don Ameche), peddling his success classes, launches a contest to find the laziest man in America. The plan is to turn the winner into an aggressive, driven success through his class and draw thousands of enrollees. The winner is Tad Page, beautifully portrayed by Henry Fonda. He's a happy man who feels that, though he's not rich, he has everything - he just wants the prize money to buy a fire engine for his town. He has no interest in taking Dawson's class. Then he falls in love - with Dawson's girlfriend (Lynn Bari).

This is a delightful movie about a man who has the true secret of life and is able to impart it to many he meets. As the original post indicated, it's a great life lesson and something to think about.

The cast - Fonda, Ameche, Bari, Edward Everett Horton, are just great. The birthday party, during which Ameche and Horton try to keep Tad from realizing that Bari is Ameche's girlfriend - was especially funny. Highly recommended.

This movie contains some incredibly racist lines. It was obviously aimed at southern belief system. I wouldn't let my kids watch it. Lynn Bari makes remarks about Louise Beavers making a cake with her "lilly white hands". Louise Beavers basically says she can't read. Then during the actual party scene Don Ameche sings in a pseudo black voice.

On the other side the movie does have some very fun scenes but some of the lines are not funny and unnecessary to the plot of the movie.

The clothing in this movie is fabulous. Lyn Bari's outfits are quite fashionable. I don't think she ever looked better in a movie.

Henry Fonda, Don Ameche and Everett Horton play their usual excellent comedic roles. Good for a quick laugh.