I Take This Woman

With two Oscars already on his shelf (Boy's Town, Captains Courageous), Tracy looks lost here. And well he should, as this was a vehicle for promoting Hedy Lamarr. The interference by a major Hollywood producer resulted in three directors and 18 months of shooting. Naturally, a patchwork film like that wouldn't do well at the box office.

Tracy is a doctor in a downtown clinic that takes up with an uptown girl who is having men problems. He finds a diamond and steals it. But, he is out of his element.

Lamarr is glorious to look at and a fine actress, but this story just didn't wash and the ending is something Capra copied years later in It's a Wonderful Life. It was schmaltzy in both films.

One can become easily lost within this film. I did. I found myself caring for these characters and hoping that, as the film wore on, there weren't any really bad turns to be taken. Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr were exquisite together. Tracy did everything one would expect, but it was Lamarr's performance that was truly refreshing. The combination of "old world" style and young girl cuteness was put forth effortlessly. She was interesting and a joy to watch. In fact, the movie was very enjoyable. There are some scenes, when viewed through today's eyes, standards, one cringes. The problem is the movie was made in 1939. Things and views were different then, just as they will be 60 years from now.

Always enjoy pictures starring Hedy Lamarr, (Georgi Gragore Decker) who is a woman in love with a man who is married and Georgi is sailing on a ship and decides to take her life and jump over board and is saved by a Dr. Karl Decker, (Spencer Tracy). Georgi is very grateful to Dr. Karl for saving her life and they both become very attracted to each other, however, Georgi has been a model for some very rich clients and has some very rich people who like her very much. Dr. Karl Decker is a doctor who works in a clinic that deals with the poor and is loved by the average simple people. Karl asks Georgi to marry him and this is when the story becomes very interesting which turns into quite a romantic film story. Enjoy.

It's a mess of a film. It seems that the production of the movie was a nightmare that went on for years after so many rewrites and reshoots, which can be seen in the main characters too, where the character arc is there, but the way it is presented is with so much of the everyday ups and rises without the feel that it's everyday. So it feels like these are supposed to be great people, but they come off as stupid.

But at the end of it, all that melodrama doesn't matter. It's Hedy Lamarr, you can just sit and look at her for two hours, and it won't be a waste of time. She shows she can act too. The character's ex got a shrine for her. What more can you ask for? Want her to make an invention that would help the American Navy in World War 2, which would form the basis for wireless technologies like Wifi, she did that too.

Hedy Lamarr is married to Spencer Tracy, but does her heart really belong to another? This is the big question in "I Take This Woman" which boasts a great cast that includes Verree Teasdale, Laraine Day, Louis Calhern, Paul Cavanaugh, and Kent Taylor. Hedy is from the upper class and when her affair with a married man (Taylor) goes sour, she tries to commit suicide on board ship and Tracy, a doctor returning from research in the Yucatan, saves her. Not surprisingly, he also falls madly in love with her. Not too long afterward, they're married, though Tracy realizes that she's still in love with her married, uptown boyfriend. She works with him in his downtown clinic and they're very happy - until the "uptown" life beckons both of them.

What can be said about Hedy - she's exquisitely beautiful, charming, and a natural actress who is excellent in the film. Though one of the comments was that Tracy came off as overly naive and a fool, I thought he was wonderful as a warm and good man. If he acts exuberantly in love, the character is just that. He's an unmarried, lonely man devoted to his work as a doctor and researcher. He meets a dream woman whom he describes as "something you'd see in a jeweler's window on black velvet - you just look and walk by" - and she agrees to marry him. How should he have acted? I loved the remark by one of the patients: "Is that your wife? What did you do, dope her?" The two make a charming couple though it's hard to watch anyone but Hedy when she's on screen.

Laraine Day plays the troubled daughter of Paul Cavanaugh - it's a small role but pivotal to the plot. The best supporting role and performance comes from Verree Teasdale, who plays Lamarr's best friend - she's a delight, popping off Charles Macarthur's witticisms with no problem.

A very enjoyable and heartwarming film. Cynics need not apply.