Dulcy

Later entry in the madcap comedy sweepstakes is paper thin but buoyed by the charming Ann Sothern. Wedged in between two Maisie pictures she gets to be a bit more addled than that resourceful gal ever was. She "fixs" things that work fine breaking them in the process and generally glides through the picture creating havoc in her wake while remaining completely unscathed.

As with most MGM movies of the era she is surrounded by an amazing cast of some of the best character actors/actresses working at the time. Billie Burke is delightfully dizzy almost matching Sothern's daffiness but the real standout besides Ann is Roland Young as the target of her unintentional "good deeds".

Inventive and illuminating it is not but thanks to the charming performances of the cast led by Ann this little known picture is worth checking out.

... despite the presence of some wonderful actors. One is hard-pressed to understand why any of these contortions would ever be considered amusing. The production values are high, but the endless succession of predictable sight gags and cruel mishaps descend into near-gibberish. Ann Sothern looks lovely, but embarrassed. Even Roland Young, for me one of the most most dependably skilled comic actors ever, just plows ahead dutifully until the whole thing grinds to a halt.

This movie has a great cast of comedians, but even they can't bring much life to a dead script.

Why the script is so dead is the real mystery here. It is based on a Broadway success by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. But if you compare the two works, you see that this movie script was radically altered from the original play.

What we are left with is a lot of slapstick sight-gags, some of which are funny, some not, and a lot of really hairbrained events. No one comes of as even vaguely real.

So, in the end, a fine cast that could have done great things is left high and dry - unlike the characters, who often end up all wet.

like the zany madcap film Merrily We Live, "Dulcy" is a week in the life of a trusting, upperclass family with too much money and not enough hobbies. When they meet up with strangers, they blindly invite them into their lives and into their house. Although mostly scrubbed clean for the production code, their ARE some ethnic jokes and slurs which were prevalent at the time. Billie Burke (best known as Glenda the Good Witch) was also in Merrily We Live, which also had a clever, fast-moving script. Beautiful outdoor photography of Lake Arrowhead, California, back in its hayday. The best part of this film is Reginald Gardiner, who plays one of the "Schuyler van Dykes" (really).... two years later Gardiner will play the hilarious Beverly Carlton in "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Viewers will also recognize Dad Forbes (Roland Young) from Topper and Philadelphia Story. The film goes in all directions and moves right along... fun flick as long as you don't look too closely at the plot.

Ann Sothern is terrific as "Dulcy". Ann Sothern is a delight to most men, and she's very funny in this movie. Shocking there is no official studio release. I'm happy to have this terrific film in my 3000 DVD/Blu-ray collection where I know it can never be censored.