Mr. and Mrs. North

I guess if you were exposed to a lot of Gracie Allen, with or without hubby George Burns, you would have a different perspective. While I've seen Gracie with George a time or two, can't say I'm overexposed with her. She came across very attractive and interesting in this. She's refreshing if you haven't had your fill of her elsewhere. I didn't miss George especially - hey, they were doing something different here, likely attempting to trade on her popularity. But, it took a little while getting used to her with hubby, Post, seeming too young and precocious himself. Mr. Burns, being much the dry, straight man, is a perfect foil. However, this Post is an attractive fellow, who did fine. It's not a tight spy thriller, after all. I really liked Gracie talking through the credits at the end. That was a very funny touch. I don't know what most expect from this type of thing, but for what it was, a mystery comedy on the lower budget order, it was good. You had the usual improbable hijinks going on, the usual sort of fairly inept coppers and the usual suspects. Though there were some good actors in this, it was Gracie's show, shared mainly with Post, her husband, who, again, I thought did a good job.

Publisher Jerry North (William Post Jr.) returns home exhausted from a business trip only to be stunned when he and his scatter-brained wife, Pam (Gracie Allen), find a dead body in a closet.

The subsequent investigation reveals that Pam has surprising knowledge about an affair between a friend and the wife of the murdered man.

The police question Jerry, Pam and a wide array of suspects from a door-to-door salesman to a secretary to a patent attorney, before deciding that Jerry is the killer.

Mr and Mrs North is a fun mystery in the vein of the Thin Man series, however Gracie North towers over her husband with her endless waffling - I felt that William Post, though adequate enough, didn't match her or be a good foil; their chemistry was sort of lacking, but nevertheless it's fun with a good list of suspects and nice one liners. Gets tedious towards the end, though.

After having just finished watching this picture, I came and read all the reviews here on IMDb. And it delights me to no end to discover that my own opinion is universally shared: George Burns should have been cast as Mr. North. I'm usually the contrarian and it is rare indeed when my opinion puts me in the majority. But I'm delighted to be in the majority here. Usually Gracie gets all the praise when it comes to Burns & Allen, it is really nice to see George get his due. Because, yes, this movie sorely needed George Burns. I'm truly glad it's so obvious to everyone.

Now I've never encountered the "real" 'Mr. and Mrs. North', whether that be on the printed page or the television screen. But I get the gist of what was going on here. The idea was clearly to take a known comic star and bring her own brand of comedy to an already existing property, and to hell with the fact that she's nothing like the original character. It reminds me very much of the Marx Brothers doing 'Room Service'. And in this case, it wasn't a horrible idea; Gracie carries it off pretty well. But if you're going to do it, *do* it! Go all the way, and bring in George as well. He probably didn't fit their idea of Mr. North, but so what? If Gracie didn't match the original concept of Mrs. North, then it should be no problem if George didn't match the original Mr. North. OK, so the movie would have been more 'Mr. and Mrs. Burns' than 'Mr. and Mrs. North'. But so what? It would have been a better, funnier film. And as it was, it was really 'Mrs. Burns and Mr. North'.

But other than that casting blunder, my only other real complaint with the film is that the story is almost impossible to follow. A big part of the problem is that there are a *lot* of characters, and yet very little exposition. It is really, really hard to keep track of just who all the characters *are*, let alone how they might fit into the murder. The director needed to do something about this.

But beyond these complaints, I thought it was a fun little movie. If you don't go in with expectations too high, it is a quite pleasant diversion. No masterpiece, to be sure, but quite enjoyable. With George, it could have been great. Pity.

I recall, as a young lad, listening to Mr. & Mrs. North on the radio. The show was, basically, a clone of "The Thin Man" with the North's engaging in amusing banter and solving murders a la Nick & Nora (but with no Asta). However, when MGM decided to make a motion picture about the North's, they went for the broad laughs by casting Gracie Allen as Pam North. This obvious miscasting simply did not work.

Gracie Allen was an attractive woman who, for many years, played a lovable, scatterbrained character on Radio, Television, and in a few movies. She did this to perfection. But, the common denominator in her career was the presence of her husband, the talented and much loved George Burns. Burns was perfect at playing the straight man and comic foil for Gracie and her outrageous ramblings. But, Burns wasn't in this movie and the resulting mediocre effort shows it. Instead of being funny, Gracie was simply annoying and, at times, obnoxious in her role. This movie would have been so much better with a different actress playing the part of Pam North.

From my standpoint, one very pleasant surprise was the casting of Fortunio Bonanova as the North's landlord. He was only in a couple of early scenes but, his presence in any movie is always a treat for me. His rich, Italian accented voice is superb, whether he is speaking or singing.

All in all, this is a decent little comedy-mystery but, it sure could have, and would have been better without Gracie Allen.

With someone as well known and as popular as Gracie Allen, who by this time had spent ten years on national radio (and was to spend ten years on national television in 1950-1959) steps into a role, preconceptions abound.

If they can be left aside, Gracie Allen does an admirable job, in her own inimitable way, of playing the part of Mrs. North. William Post also does a good job. If you're looking for George Burns, you won't find him. But it's unfair to judge Post by comic Burns' standards. Post was playing a part and did so very well.

In fact, he handled Allen with the grace of a bewildered husband, but did it in a different way than Burns. So what? Post's dignity and style were all his own and he handled his part well. You might ask why did he marry someone as crazy as Gracie Allen? You could ask the same thing of George Burns. But, you're forgetting this is a movie -- a film. It is played for laughs, and Allen and Post fit into this mold well.

The movie has charm and carries your interest throughout. It has several funny gags, too, that work well in this film. This is a really good comedic mystery, just as it's supposed to be.

Both Gracie Allen and William Post deliver fine performances in their roles of Mr. and Mrs. North.