Mr. Wilson perd la tête

W.S. Van Dyke seems to be having a blast directing this madcap comedy that brings together one of the most endearing couple of the cinema: Myrna Loy and William Powell.

"I Love You Again" starts aboard a Trans Atlantic crossing where we meet Larry Wilson. He is a tight man with his money, as shown at the ship's bar where his penny pinching is embarrassing. After an accident lands him on the water, Larry suffers a blow to the head and he becomes amnesiac, reverting into a former self, a con artist. With the help of his new best friend, Doc Ryan, he realizes he's struck gold. He's rich!

Little prepares Larry for what awaits him on arrival in New York. His wife, Kay, is at the pier! Nothing makes sense of Larry, and thus begins a game of catch up with his new persona. Along the way, Kay and Larry battle because she doesn't want any part of the stingy Larry. We watch Kay as suddenly falling for Larry as he seems a changed man. Love will win in the end!

William Powell plays the double personality man Larry Wilson/George Carey, with his usual flair. Myrna Loy is shown at her best. She showed such a beauty and sophistication in the film that's hard to imagine anyone else playing Kay. Frank McHugh is excellent as Larry's would be partner-in-crime. Edmund Lowe and Donald Douglas are good as well.

The movie is a lot of fun and will reward anyone watching it.

I wonder if this might be the great granddaddy of all amnesia films. If it's not, it's sure one of the first and has inspired countless sitcom episodes. William Powell is bonked on the head and suddenly he's a completely different person--one who apparently disappeared nine years earlier. Who he was during the last nine years is uncertain, but what IS certain is that the new personality is a crook. When this shady guy figures out that during the last nine years he's become a pillar of the community and has access to gobs of other peoples' money, he wants to steal everything he can and run. The problem is, he discovers he has a wife (Loy) and can't bring himself to leave--even when he finds out she hates him. Well, much of the movie is spent trying to win her back, though he still wonders whether or not to rob his "friends". What he does and how the entire mess is resolved is brilliant and a lot of fun. This isn't wacky fun like his other film, LOVE CRAZY, but is a little more sophisticated and deliberately paced. A wonderful old film with excellent acting, writing (aside from the dumb plot device) and direction. One of Powell's and Loy's best.

Hilariously entertaining tale of a man with double amnesia: a dull penny pincher on one hand, a thieving con artist on the other. After being conked on the noggin he revives to find he has spent the last nine years as someone he isn't and reverts to his former tricky self. His apple cart is upset when he discovers he is falling for the wife he picked up during the nine year blackout. A plan to bilk some of the locals over a phony oil deal doesn't appear so rosy once his thorny heart is pricked by love, which puts him in danger from a mean tempered associate intent on becoming rich. Fast paced and very funny film, well worth watching, especially Powell's zany character.

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.

When the movie going public demands you back 14 times you know that something is being done right by both the studio and the players involved.

William Powell and Myrna Loy hit a real career high point in this film with a rather original plot gimmick. The amnesia gimmick is stood on its head in this film.

Powell and Loy are married and he's on a business trip involving an ocean voyage. Powell is something of a stuffed shirt when we meet him on the ship. When a drunken Frank McHugh falls overboard, Powell dives in to rescue him and in the process gets himself knocked out.

When he comes to, like in Random Harvest, he discovers his former identity which is that of a confidence man and as it turns out McHugh also is a full time grifter.

Unlike Ronald Colman who spent the whole of Random Harvest searching for his lost years, Powell has his identity there. Returning to his town with his new found friend McHugh, he finds wife Loy together with the fact he's a person of some means. But he also finds out that Loy was planning to get rid of him.

Powell together with McHugh and former associate Edmund Lowe try to work an elaborate con game on the town. At the same time Powell is falling for the woman he married and embarks on a campaign to win her back. Those two agenda items come into conflict.

Bill and Myrna are at their best in I Love You Again. Two highlight scenes for me are Powell's cooing courtship of Loy and his trip through the woods in his Boy Ranger uniform with his Boy Ranger troop. This must have been the same outfit that Jimmy Stewart was trying to get a summer camp for in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The goings on are similar to what Powell went through fishing in Libeled Lady.

I Love You Again is movie comedy at its very best. Don't miss it if TCM runs it again.