That Wonderful Urge (1949)



“Good! Tell them I'm not your husband. Don't let me go through life with that blot on my record”

            That Wonderful Urge is a predictable comedy.  It really did not need to be as long as it was, just by looking at the poster you knew Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power were going to wind up together in the end (oh I’m sorry was this a spoiler? If this was, you obviously have not seen too many romantic comedy movies in your life or pretty much any movie for that matter).

            The plot is really silly and boring by the middle. Gene Tierney plays Sara Farley a wealthy socialite who has her life splashed across the pages of newspapers and gossip columns. Tyrone Power plays Tomas Jefferson Tyler a newspaper writer sent to write about Sara. Tom sees that Sara is a really nice girl and starts to kind of feel bad about writing about her. One day Tom and Sara are out skiing when Tom hits his head and gets a little knocked out. They find a small hut for stranded people and remain there until help comes. The two get to know each other and Tom sees another side to this much gossiped about socialite. After they are rescued he has nothing but nice things to write about her but unfortunately the papers do not print this story immediately and Sara only sees the slander Tom had previously written about her.  

            To get back at Tom Sara tells everyone that she and Tom are married. This whole situation throws Tom into a wreck and makes his life miserable. He gets fired by his paper and he has nowhere to stay since he is late on rent. He tries to marry a girl friend of his but everyone believes that he and Sara are really married and no one will marry him and his friend.

            After this it is pretty much all about Tom and Sara one upping each other in embarrassment which gets old very quickly and is not always funny.

            Gene Tierney is one of my favorite actresses and all I had ever seen her in up to this point has been dramas. I liked Tierney in this role it is something different from what I was used to seeing her in. Sara Farley as a character is annoying but Tierney was very good. One scene I really enjoyed with her was when Sara and Tom are put in jail for the night. She starts singing a song to get on Tom’s nerves. Tierney had a pretty good singing voice. Sara then asks Tom for his last cigarette and he teases her holding the cigarette out so she can’t reach it with her mouth then she takes his hand and bites it! He starts throwing his shoes and whatever he can at her and she is just sitting on her cot puffing her cigarette and smoking.

            This was the first time I have ever seen Tyrone Power in a film. I like him as an actor but like Tierney with Sara the character of Tom was annoying.

            That Wonderful Urge is a remake of an earlier Tyrone Power film called Love is News with Loretta Young. Apparently from what I have read the original is better. I would not doubt that. I believe I read somewhere that during the late 1940s Daryl Zanuck decided it would be a good idea to remake movies and this was probably one of them. The film does have some very good funny scenes especially in the middle when Tom and Sara start to see there really are feelings between them (the two actors had been in The Razor’s Edge where they had very good chemistry which carries over here). Watch That Wonderful Urge if you are not in the mood to really think about the movie you are watching or if you are a fan if either Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power.

            Youtube currently has this available to view. The film is a little difficult to find on DVD.