Mr. Wilson perd la tête

William Powell plays both George Carey and Larry Wilson, and Myrna Loy is his wife Kay in this wonderful, deft, entertaining screwball comedy directed by Woody Van Dyke III...."Hey, this is kinda funny. We're not talking about you but a lug named Wilson, and you're both fellas." The words are those of Doc Ryan, George Carey's pal. George, you see, has had amnesia for nine years, and during that time he became Larry Wilson, a pompous businessman....Enter Larry's charming wife Kay. George learns that Kay is eager to divorce Larry because of his miserable, suffocatingly materialistic ways; and when meets Kay, whom he has forgotten, he falls for her and sets out to reclaim her love....The film's defining moment surprises us with its tenderness. Standing in contrast to the film's madcap goings-on, it takes place when George escorts Kay, who thinks he's Larry, to the spot where years before he proposed to her as Larry. The scene precisely captures the distinctive and wonderful chemistry between Powell and Loy, who went on to make ten more pictures together....Like his two most famous characters (Godfrey of MY MAN GODFREY and Nick Charles of THE THIN MAN), Powell's George Carey emerges as a humane individual with the common touch. In fact, he becomes a hero, saving the townsfolk of quaint Haversville from a criminal scam perpetuated by a big city gangster named Duke Sheldon.

After saving a life, William Powell becomes the victim of amnesia in "I Love You Again," a 1940 film also starring Frank McHugh and Edmund Lowe - this having the distinction of two Philo Vances, Lowe and Powell, in the cast.

Powell plays a cheapskate named Larry Wilson. While on a cruise ship, he jumps into the ocean to save "Doc" Ryan (McHugh) and suffers a head injury. When he wakes up, he has become his former self, a con artist named George and has no memory of the respectable, conservative, stingy life he has been living for some years. Off the ship, he discovers that his lovely wife (Loy) can't wait to get rid of him - or so she thinks, until she realizes that "Larry" is a changed man - for the better.

Powell is out and out hilarious in this film. For such a distinguished looking man, he has provided this writer with almost as many laugh out loud moments as the Marx Brothers. One of his best scenes is when his wife refuses to dance with him, so he dances by himself. Another occurs when, as a boy scout troop leader, he is asked to continue with the deer-tracking techniques he was teaching before leaving town. Of course, he has no memory of any such thing and, as a reporter follows him, he falls into holes, crawls around the brush, and gets stuck in a couple of traps.

The pairing of Powell and Loy is magical. She looks particularly beautiful in this film and her confusion regarding her changed husband and sadness over her marriage is quite touching.

Highly recommended.

Seems to me that in the course of his career, WILLIAM POWELL has been in many a movie as an amnesia victim--but here, it's strictly for laughs. He and Myrna Loy (at her most attractive) are paired again as a romantic couple with their usual share of misunderstandings and shenanigans. It has the flavor of a Nick and Nora flick--without Astor.

The story is a series of misunderstandings and comic situations all set up by the fact that Powell is struggling to remember who he was--and meanwhile rediscovers his wife and loves her very much even though she is threatening to leave him. None of it makes much sense and all of it is played strictly for laughs and romantic charm.

Working with very thin material, Loy and Powell do it again. Proof that their box-office chemistry was no fluke. If you enjoy this one, try LOVE CRAZY with an even crazier approach to the amnesia angle and even more amusing.

It's 1940 on a trans-Atlantic ship. Stodgy cheapskate businessman Larry Wilson (William Powell) falls off the boat while trying to rescue drunken Doc Ryan (Frank McHugh) going overboard. He wakes up and remembers only up to 1931. He's actually a con man named George Carey. Arriving in New York, he's met by his wife Kay (Myrna Loy) who wants a divorce to marry another man. He sees an opportunity to steal with his new found con partner Doc pretending to be his real doctor. Most of the money turns out to be locked away in a community chest account.

The pairing of Powell and Loy strikes again. Their chemistry is as good as ever despite the change in premise. The quirky premise has loads of fun. It does get a bit muddy. It needs a flashback scene in 1931 when he first transformed. Overall, this is a good piece of screwball comedy. It would be nice to have a bit more physical farce to match the premise.

William Powell gets knocked on the head during an ocean cruise. It seems he's had amnesia for the past nine years and was a penny-pinching, thoroughly unlikable man married to Myrna Loy. Now that he's become his real self (which is strong and masculine) he falls in love with Loy. But she's planning to divorce him...so he has to win her all over again. And deal with his past as a gangster.

Very funny movie. Fast-moving, well-directed and acted...but it's all because of Loy and Powell. Those two were absolutely incredible on-screen--they played off each other brilliantly and their quick, non-stop dialogue and one-liners were just fantastic. I prefer this one over the "Thin Man" series they did--in the "Thin Man" they were always drinking and it was played for laughs!!! This one doesn't have that. Unfortunately it also doesn't have that adorable dog Asta.

Still, this quick and lots of fun. An excellent Hollywood comedy that (strangely) is almost forgotten today. Well worth seeing.