Pour l'amour de Caroline

The wonderfully urbane Ronald Coleman is show-cased here as in few other of his films. He is literally in every scene and this comical movie remains fresh because of him, not in spite of him. He is handsome, witty and very clever here as he remains a step ahead of his wandering, lovely wife--played perfectly by Anna Lee. The movie is based on a french play and brings all the best qualities of that farce. Most of the supporting cast is well known, at least by face if not name...and are absolutely perfect for this very funny film. The fantastic Mr. Coleman is a combination of Sean Connery and Clark Gable as he stays a step ahead of the other characters. His multi-talents can be further appreciated in the classic "Lost Horizon" which every film buff must see.

This almost unknown gem was based on a French farce--which shows, and I mean that as a compliment.

Caroline (Lee) is being courted by a wealthy Argentinian (Roland), who asks her father for her hand in marriage. But Caroline is already married to Anthony (Colman), who has just arrived by plane and launches immediately into an audience-directed reminiscence about the last time Caroline decided she was in love with someone else: a dilettante-ish sculptor (Gardiner). The film plays out the story of Anthony's strategy in uncoupling Caroline from her sculptor, and how that experience aids him with her Argentinian.

It is perfectly cast: Ronald Colman is at his most sophisticated and charming, Reginald Gardiner is at his most priggish, Gilbert Roland is at his most exotic, and Anna Lee is just deliciously whimsical. The film is wonderfully directed by Lewis Milestone (who also produced); the whole production feels like a labor of love. There are wonderful touches, such as Colman breaking frame and addressing the camera, and exceptional use of a sliding bar-cabinet door. It is a sin that it hasn't been released on DVD--this is the kind of film that can singlehandedly awaken interest in classic film.

... but I have started watching it about half a dozen times when it shows up on Turner Classic Movies, and this time I was determined to watch it to the end.

Caroline Mason (Anna Lee) is the wife of a successful publisher, Anthony Mason (Ronald Colman) whose work keeps him in New York. With lots of free time on her hands Caroline holidays in Idaho and Florida, and whenever she vacations, she seems to wind up in emotional affairs with men who have plenty of time on their hands to romance her, usually because they are independently wealthy, and the source of their wealth does not require their skill or attention. And both she and the other man in each case seem to be convinced they should be married.

Anthony shows up and, discovering these emotional affairs, is not angry or jealous. Instead, oddly enough, he is amused. He then goes about interfering with the affair in such a way that he hopes brings Caroline back to him, or at least keeps her with him. He loses or destroys notes she has written him asking for a divorce because both she and the other man are too cowardly to face him on it, he asks Caroline's pastor to call on her to ping her conscience, and he pops up or disrupts the would be couple's attempts at rendezvous. The question is why? Why does he want to act as roadrunner to her Wile E. Coyote? Just let this vacant woman go! In the words of Danny DeVito in War of the Roses - "There are other houses, there are other women!"

And that's where this movie breaks down. I don't believe any of the characters. Colman is charming as always, and that makes it doubly hard to figure out why he hangs on to the childlike, impulsive, and emotionally unfaithful Caroline. There are three characters that make this even a 5/10 - Colman of course, a butler who is a curious cross between Peter Lorre and Lurch from the Adams family, and a dog that continually bites and chases Caroline's father who aids and abets his daughter's affairs. Good for the dog!

I thought that the posted average rating was somewhat low for this film so I reviewed the reviews. This is one of those films where many love it and many pan it. Anna Lee is great in her admittedly light role yet she's picked on presumably because one has not liked the film and Anna was not a well known star like Colman - she was well cast and did the role as it should be played. Almost all reviewers acknowledged that Colman was great. One critic complained that he could not see Colman's character falling in love with Lee's character - fair enough observation but irrelevant for a comedy - think of George Burns and Gracie (airhead) Allen - those inconsistencies are the comic devices that almost all comedies rely on. I thought it was very amusing except for the ending. For some reason, the writers thought they had to end with a plot twist that added no comedy whatsoever (any laugh after the twist was independent of the twist) and quite confusing. Perhaps the unfortunate choice of twist for the last few minutes of the film threw others off as well and one's impression of a film is often disproportionately affected by the ending. It was an entertaining 1930s-1940s-ish comedic farce, but if you don't like that style, you may not like it.

Ronald Coleman's company, which produced this film for RKO, chose playwright John Van Druten to adapt a 1935 French farce by Henri Verneuill to film. Although on the surface, Colman would appear to be perfectly cast--suave, urbane, witty, charming-- something essential is missing. There is no sex in this sex comedy. Unlike the French, these sophisticated Americans don't seem to go the bed with one another, or even think about it. Instead, they take naps and drink a lot. Lubitsch, had he directed, might have found a way to add the missing attraction and tension, but the film's director, Lewis Milestone, excellent craftsman as he was, avoids it all together. Given the censorship restrictions of the time, perhaps this was an impossible project to begin with, untranslatable. There are some worthwhile moments, however, in this 1941 pre-Pearl Harbor glossy studio-bound film. Reginald Denny, for one, is far less cloying than usual, and has some wonderful moments with Colman. The rest of the cast, particularly Anna Lee, is first-rate.