Symphonie en 6.35

Behave Yourself!

Not sure why the film is titled the way it was. I did want to watch it as I have not seen an early Shelly Winters film. I could only imagine an older, larger Shelly from the film "Poseidon Adventure."

The film is a situation comedy of sorts. The early 50s version of situation comedy includes lots of misunderstandings, a mother-in-law doing Dianetics classes in the evenings, and an innocent man who (a) forgot his wife's anniversary; (b) had a run-in with a dog who is trained in finding drop-off points for smugglers and (c) is always at the scene of a murder or three!

Sorry but the overacting was just too much. The comedy was not that funny to the modern viewer and the cops not really understanding what was going on as the stumbled through the scenes and the equally dumb gangsters with pratfalls and further misunderstandings – well!

Stars: Fun to see William Demerist in something other than his "My Three Sons" TV series (from the Sixties). And Lon Chaney Jr. as a heavy was a sight to see.

Shelly Winters acted as a clueless woman who faints more than she babbles on about her husband. The mother-in-law was a gem, how she accuses her son-in-law of murder and says "it figures" several times throughout the film.

Unless you're a big Shelly Winters fan, probably not the style for you. Lucille Ball played this theme so much better.

DVD: My DVD was from Alpha Video and did not have any features other than scene selections.

Cast & Crew:

Director: George Beck Writers: George Beck (screenplay), George Beck (story),» Stars: Farley Granger, Shelley Winters and William Demarest

Pretty funny movie combining gangsters with domestic life with a cute dog thrown in. Some good jokes and one liners, some a little risqué. Lots of familiar character actors. Shelley Winters does a great job, actually seeming a lot LUCY RICARDO-ish, which is unusual as I LOVE LUCY actually premiered the same year. Don't miss the clever, closing credits "In order of their disappearance" showing some characters after they've been murdered.

A star studded cast -- Granger, Demarest, Lon Chaney, Allen Jenkins, Sheldon Leonard, Elisha Cook, Marvin Kaplan. Some bigtime hollywood names here. Bill brings a stray dog home after shopping for an anniversary gift for his wife, but she thinks the dog IS the gift. and this dog is special.... it's been trained to work for the mob. and they want it back ! it does get a little annoying. Bill spends a whole lot of time talking to the dog to get him to leave the bedroom, but for some reason, the dog doesn't seem to understand. that got annoying after a while. Fun premise, but so much time spent on stupid minor things. Script could have been so much better. just one mis-understanding after another. Demarest and Jenkins are the cops trying to railroad Bill (Granger). It's okay. Directed by George Beck... this was the one and only film he directed.

Farley Granger and Shelley Winters form an unlikely couple in this screwball caper. The script was supposedly written in four days, and quite frankly, it shows. But there are some genuinely uproarious events, most of them involving William Demarest as a homicide chief. Hans Conreid appears in a heavy British accent, but he isn't nearly as funny as Demarest, though he certainly tries to be.

In fact, they all try to be funny in this offering from RKO, perhaps a bit too much. The energy, though, is good, and there is an adorable pooch named Archie whose presence is central to the plot. Near the end of the film, Granger bites Archie in an attempt to elicit laughs, proving there is such a thing as bad taste in movies. Obviously, Granger's character does not see the value in behaving himself.

I was actually surprised at how funny this comedy was--I guess I wasn't expecting much. Still, I laughed out loud several times. Shelly Winters proves grating at times with her one-note performance, but Farley Granger (looking as sexy as ever)proves to be extremely good at comedy. However, the single best performance in this movie is given by Archie, the dog, who is crucial to the plot. And he's not even listed in the credits on this website! (I actually looked the movie up on IMDb just because I wanted to see if Archie was in other films. And I've never, ever done that for a DOG before.) Elisha Cook Jr. is very welcome in a cameo role, but is not given nearly enough to do.