Coup de foudre

Together Again casts Irene Dunne as a small town Vermont mayor who took over when her husband died. There's a statue to him in the town square that lightning removed the head of. It has to be replaced and she goes to New York to commission sculptor Charles Boyer to make a new statue,

Dunne's household consists of father-in-law Charles Coburn in one of his patented foxy grandpa parts and her teen daughter Mona Freeman. Both think she ought to move on and start dating. Even the job as mayor is more of an obligation as Dunne sees it. Boyer's arrival gives Coburn some hope.

This was one very nice comedy and the performances of Charles Dingle as Dunne's rival for mayor and newspaper editor and Adele Jergens as a stripper that Dunne gets caught in a nightclub raid with in a very funny sequence.

Together Again was the third and final time Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne were teamed on screen. This one is not Love Affair, but this is a funny film.

Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer are "Together Again" in this 1944 comedy, which also stars Charles Coburn, Mona Freeman, and Jerome Courtland.

Dunne plays Anne Crandall, widow of a small-town mayor. She has inherited his post and lives with her stepdaughter (Freeman) and her father-in-law (Coburn). Crandall Sr. (Coburn) wants Anne to get out and enjoy life, but Anne, in very un-'40s style, enjoys her career and life and doesn't need a man. One night, during a thunderstorm, lightning strikes the statue of her husband in the town square and knocks off his head. Anne is rushed to New York City to interview George Corday (Boyer), a sculptor to do a new statue. There's an instant attraction, which Anne pretends doesn't exist. After a series of misadventures, Anne decides she doesn't want Corday in her hometown, and leaves New York. He follows.

Dunne looks great and shows her wonderful comic style, and Boyer just drips with charm in this. Coburn does a good job as her irascible father-in-law. Jerome Courtland is Diana's (Freeman) boyfriend, and he does a nice comic turn. A very young Freeman turns in a good performance as Diana.

I read some negative reviews here. I found this to be a delightful comedy, thanks in large part to both Dunne and Boyer, with good support from Coburn. Is it The Philadelphia Story? No, but it's very enjoyable. And those hats! Killers.

The DVD of this movie that I received from Netflix paired it with another Irene Dunne comedy vehicle, the 1936 release "Theodora Goes Wild," and I can see why. "Together Again" (a generic title, by the way, and one that doesn't even really make much sense), borrows many plot points from that earlier film and rearranges them just enough to prevent this film from being a straight remake.

Dunne plays the upstanding mayor of a provincial town who resists falling for an artist from the city (Charles Boyer) when she hires him to create a new statue for the town square. The statue happens to be of her late husband, the town's previous mayor, whose legacy Dunne has spent the years since his death trying to live up to. She becomes involved in a minor scandal while staying in the city, and tries to keep it from the town once she returns. But Boyer playfully uses it to blackmail her into accepting his advances. An additional storyline involving Dunne's daughter and her boyfriend adds some amusing complications to the situation.

This film is a little bit of nothing, but it's cute and entertaining. It doesn't make any sense; plot developments spring out of thin air, and characters turn on a dime. But Dunne and Boyer make a good pair, and it's easy to see why they collaborated frequently. They have a lot of chemistry, and I've never liked Boyer better than here where he gets to show his comedic charming side. Terrific character actor Charles Coburn plays Dunne's father-in-law, whose purpose in life is to get Dunne married again. Some of the film's funniest moments come from hearing the things he says about his own granddaughter, a neurotic teenager who drives him crazy.

There's a clever little weather motif running through the film that I liked very much and that ties the otherwise scattershot screenplay together rather nicely.

Grade: B

Fun teaming of Dunne and Boyer in a nice little comedy with good performances by all.

Dunne plays a widow who is mayor of a small Vermont town. She goes off to New York City to interview a sculptor (Boyer) for a town project but gets involved in a nightclub raid after she is mistaken for the stripper. Back in Vermont Dunne tries to forget Boyer but he shows up and moves into her garage to sculpt.

Dunne is goaded into "life" again by her father-in-law (Charles Coburn) and dramatic teen step-daughter (Mona Freeman). This get funny when Freeman thinks Boyer has proposed to her. To get even Dunne traps gawky teen (Jerome Courtland) into proposing to her. The four spar back and forth with Coburn get more and more confused until things finally straighten out.

Good support from Elizabeth Patterson, Charles Dingle, Janis Carter, Adele Jergens, Carl Switzer, Nora Cecil, Nina Mae McKinney, and Hobart Cavanaugh. Shelley Winters has a bit part.

Dunne and Boyer had great chemistry and three made films together.

"Together Again" was the third and last pairing of Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne in the leads. One might say they each lose their head over the other in this wonderful comedy. The story is riddled with hilarious scenes and lines. And, as the screenplay intimates, there might be some heavenly persuasion included in the story.

When this movie came out just before Christmas 1944, WW II in Europe had just been prolonged with the German offensive in the Battle of the Bulge. So, that Christmas at home, this film was likely another welcome escape.

A superb cast support Dunne and Boyer as Mayor Anne Crandall and sculptor George Corday, respectively. Charles Coburn has one of his excellent roles as a supporting actor. He plays Jonathan Crandall Sr. Mona Freeman is a riot as the teenage daughter of Anne, Diana Crandall. Jerome Courtland is Gilbert Parker, Charles Dingle is the boisterous newspaper owner, Morton Buchanan, and Elizabeth Patterson is Jessie, Crandall's cook and housekeeper.

The film has outstanding work with scenes of lightning in the sky. The very end of the film is a masterpiece of film work. This is one of those comedies that had superb writing and the perfect cast for the plot. The script is filled with humor, in many places just in the dialog of conversation between people. The replies and responses between Boyer's Corday and Dunne's mayor Crandall are examples of great spontaneity in writing -- and acting. This film has so much of that, that it takes a second and third viewing to grasp it all and enjoy more laughter.

And, this is one of the great comedies that Dunne made where her exceptional talent lights up the screen. Just watch for and look at the close-ups with her facial expressions that portray the comedy in all the scenes she is in. The first half of the film will get big laughs after her second or third shocking or perturbed reaction to a Boyer line, with "Mr. Corday!" It was by my third time watching this movie - some years after the first that this seemed to tickle my funny bone so much.

Here are some samples of the superb dialog in this film. For many more funny lines, see the Quotes section in this IMDb Web page on the film.

Diana Crandall, "Grandfather Crandall, you weren't sick. You cheated. I don't know where you got this dishonesty about things, because you certainly didn't get it from me or my father."

George Corday, "Well, I'm not going to apologize, you know. Because you're a fraud." Anne Crandall. "I beg your..." Corday, "You are. You are a fraud and a delusion. You deserve to be embarrassed." Anne,: "I..." Corday, "You have no business running around with mayor insides and such a beautiful outside."

Anne, "My, my, it certainly is philosophical out tonight."

Corday, "Most women's necks are just something to hold their heads up. But yours is positively lyrical."

Anne, "Oh, that was the strangest thing. I was standing right here with my dress in my hand, and all of a sudden, it disappeared. Right through the window."

Witherspoon, "It's manpower, your honor." Mayor Anne Candall, "Manpower, my eye. Use woman power, then." Witherspoon, "Women, to collect garbage?" Anne, "Why not? Women see more garbage in their lives than men do, don't they? They might as well get paid for it."

Jonathan Crandall Sr:, "Whew! It's like living with a box of matches."

Corday, "And that hat. That is definitely not a mayor's hat."

Corday, "Mrs. Crandall, your persistence in placing this interview on a personal basis is very embarrassing to me." Anne, "Embarrassing to you!"

Corday, "Mm hmm. I have erased the question mark after affectionate. You see how one thing leads to another?" Anne, "Mr. Corday!"

Corday, "You've been a widow for five years?" Anne, "Well, naturally." Corday, "On the contrary, there is nothing natural about that."

Corday, "If only women could realize that it's modesty that is attractive to men."

Anne, "Mr. Corday, I don't believe you understood me. I just fired you."

Diana, "But, but mother said you had a beard, down to here." Anne, "Well, I thought you did. Didn't you?" She motions toward Diana. Corday, giving Anne a scolding teacher's look, then picking it up, "A beard?... Oh, yes, yes. I did have a beard, but I shaved it off. It's so much warmer here in Vermont than in New York."

Anne, "You blackmailer!" Corday, "Tch, tch. Mayor Crandall!"

Anne, "Mr. Corday, why do you want to stay here that badly?" Corday, "That's what I want to find out."

Corday, "I'm sorry. I think your granddaughter is a charming child." Jonathan Sr., "My granddaughter is a ravening she-wolf. And don't underestimate her. Now if my daughter-in-law started spouting French, I wouldn't object. Do you understand? I wouldn't object at all."

Jessie, "He's been trying to get you alone ever since he came here. Well, I see he's finally made it." Anne, "Please, don't be silly, Jessie." Jessie, "I might give you the same advice, Mayor Crandall."

Jessie, "I don't know what's keeping Mrs. Crandall out this late." Jonathan Sr., "Really?"

Jonathan Sr., "If we're going to rot here together, we might as well be gay about it."

Diana, coming in all excited with a newspaper in her hands, "Mother! Mother! Did you know this happened to you?"

Jonathan Sr., "A mother's just another piece of furniture in a girl's house, Gilbert, don't you know that?"

Diana, "In our part of the country, Mr. Corday, we don't bandy women's names around without any clothes on."

Jonathan Sr., "Why, Jessie, you're a human being." Jessie, "That don't call for you to be insulting, Mr. Crandall."

Miss Thorn, "You've kind of lost your head over that little mayor dame, haven't you?" Corday, "Well, she's the type of woman men seem to lose their heads over, Miss Thorn."