Three Came Home (1950)

I like watching films from the 1940s when America was involved in World War II. I like watching how Hollywood responded and what types of war films they produced. I especially liked seeing the changed in the types of characters actresses from the 1930s played in the 1940s. Claudette Colbert was one of those tough, hardened 1930s women. She played to perfection Cleopatra in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1934 version. She was sexy and seductive. In the 1940s Colbert and many actresses were given parts of the obedient war wife with children and a home to look after while the men were away or they were war nurses who went through wherever they were stationed. Colbert played a variety of war women in the 1940s during WWII. In Three Came Home she plays the dutiful yet brave and strong and loving wife. Unlike the women on the home front her character is thrown into horrendous circumstances with her husband and young son.

            Agnes Newton Keith (Colbert) is an American author married to a British soldier named Harry (Patric Knowles). Harry is stationed on an island in China. With the world now at war the British regiment wants to send the women and children back home to England for their own safety. Agnes does not want to go back she wants to stay with Harry. The Japanese begin to attack the island. The women and children are told to go to a government house and wait there. Unfortunately the Japanese take over the island and the British government cannot help them at that time. Some of the soldiers go to the government house and keep guard.

            The next morning Agnes is ordered to go with a soldier while everyone else can leave. The soldier brings her to his commanding officer Colonel Suga. Agnes had written a book about the Barneo the island she lives on. The colonel tells her that while he was studying at college in America he read her book and liked it.

            Orders are given that all Europeans living on the island are to be evacuated to a prison camp. The men and women are to be separated. They now live in terrible conditions. Sometimes the men walk by their camp leaving the women with only glances of their husbands. Harry risks dropping notes to Agnes as he walks by the camp, he drops a note one day telling her to meet him by a palm tree where other husbands and wives have met. Agnes barely makes it to the palm tree that night she and her son George have been suffering from a terrible fever. George’s fever is getting worse. One woman Mrs. Summer is watching George while Agnes is meeting Harry. She wants to get some medicine for him so she goes to the commanding officer to see about getting a doctor. The captain wants to see George and Agnes. Fortunately Agnes gets back just in time before the guards come.

            The women are being moved to a different camp. The Japanese allow them to say goodbye to their husbands. Harry sneaks Agnes some handkerchiefs and a letter. Agnes reads Harry’s letter, he wrote to try to keep George alive. Finally the women are brought to a camp after spending ten days at sea. They are forced to work like dogs and are only given one meal a day. The days and years drag on. Agnes and George have not seen Harry in two years she has no idea if her husband is still alive.  

            One night during a storm Agnes gets out of bed to take clothes off of a line. All of the sudden she is attacked by a Japanese soldier. Somehow she is able to get the soldier away from her. When Colonel Suga comes through the next morning she tells him what happened to her and wants protection from him since she signed his book back on the island. A nasty lieutenant does not believe her story he wants her pick someone out. She tells him over and over again that it was dark she could not see who it was that attacked her. The lieutenant wants her to sign a paper that she lied about the attack. Agnes refuses to sign it. The lieutenant has someone come in and beat her to get her to sign. She let go with the promise that she will not talk about it anymore.

            Sometime later everyone sees British airplanes flying overhead. They receive dropped letter from the allies that the Japanese have surrendered and help will be with them soon. Suga calls Agnes into his office. He tells her that his wife and son have been killed in the bombings of Hiroshima knowing that she would understand how he feels. Later in the day he takes George and some of the other children back to his place. He gives them food and watches them eat. As he watches the children he breaks down and cries.

            Finally the allies come to the rescue. They open the gates and bring the men from the other camp to them. Agnes and George patiently wait for Harry. After agonizingly long minutes Harry comes to them.

            Claudette Colbert was amazing. She was perfect for the part because she played women like this before. She played women who have suffered so much yet they fight to live and be happy. What I really like about Colbert in the part is that she did not overact. There were so many scenes that other actresses in the part could have overacted but Colbert played them so well. Patric Knowles was not in the film long but he was great with Colbert. I always enjoy seeing him in a film.

            Three Came Home is a great film. It is one of the better war films about women I have seen. It is a great example how women stuck together during the time of war and through awful conditions. I also liked how Col. Suga was not portrayed as the totally evil or sadistic Japanese soldier. He was cruel yes but he had some kind of heart to him. Three Came Home is a film I absolutely recommend seeing especially if you like Claudette Colbert or films about World War II.

 

Crown vs Stevens (1936)

Never heard of Crown vs. Stevens before? No worries because I never heard of it before TCM aired it the other day. I only watched it because Patric Knowles aka Warner Bros. other Errol Flynn played a leading role.

            The film begins with Chris Jensen (Knowles) at a nightclub with his girlfriend Mamie. He proposes to her only after a month of dating. He tells Mamie that he has to know her answer because he has to wait to ask to have his pay raised so he can begin to pay the ring off. Mamie convinces Chris to let her wear the ring. The following day Chris asks his boss for a raise and the boss a Mr. Stevens says he cannot give him the pay they are only a small decorating firm with a somewhat limited clientele. Mamie calls him at work to say she is not going to marry him she has fallen in love with a rich man. She refuses to give back the ring because she wants something to remember him by.

            Now Chris is out of nineteen pounds and without a raise it will take him a long time to pay the loan shark off he got the money from. Chris goes to the loan shark to explain his problem. The man says he must pay the money back. Chris then goes to Mr. Stevens to ask for him for an advance on his pay. The boss yet again refuses Chris’s request. Chris goes back to the loan shark to try to work something out. When he walks into the office he finds the loan shark slumped over his desk dead from a bullet to the head. A woman comes out of the shadows of the room. She warns Chris to stay where he is or else she will do to him what she did to the dead man.

            Mr. Stevens asks Chris to run over to his house to pick up one of the accounting books. Chris retrieves the book, as he looks up from the book he can see his boss’s wife Doris. She is the woman who killed the loan shark. Doris explains that she did not mean to kill the man but he attacked her and the gun went off. She did not want to go to the police because her husband would have turned her out. She only went to the loan shark because her husband was not giving her money. When Chris gets back to the office the police are there looking at Mr. Stevens’ gun. They found Doris’s name in the loan shark’s book she had tried to burn. The gun is the wrong caliber and cross Mrs. Stevens off their list of suspects.

            Doris’s friend Ella comes over the house. Ella is dripping with new furs and clothes and jewelry. She is engaged to a man with a lot of money. Doris is upset because she wants the things that Ella has. Ella thought Doris had married someone with money. Doris thought she did too and now she has no new clothes and her house is bare of luxuries. Ella tells her friend not to worry hopefully Stevens has left her money in his will. Ella parts telling Doris there will be a party at her place that night.

            Doris goes to the party. Stevens is made at his wife for coming home late and drunk. He is even more upset because he is getting sick with a cold and wanted her to take care of him. A few days later Doris calls Chris at the office to tell him her husband is very sick and his condition is worsening and that she wants to take him away to get better. Unfortunately for Doris her lie falls apart when the foreman of the office visits Mr. Stevens and sees that his boss is not gravely ill at all. Chris goes over to the house to have Mrs. Stevens sign the payroll for the week. Doris tells him that her husband is too ill to come downstairs he has just gone to sleep for the night. Now Chris is worried that Doris might do something to her husband. He tells his friend Molly about what he saw at the loan shark’s office.

            Doris has brought a strong sleeping solution. She plans to kill her husband by giving him an overdose. Mr. Stevens reads about the murder of the loan shark and realizes the gun belongs to Doris. His wife blames the innocent maid and fires the girl. She gives a glass of milk with the sleeping solution to her husband. He drinks the whole glass and immediately starts to feel out of sorts. As he walks down the stairs he becomes very tired. Doris tells him that fresh air will do him good he must try to get outside to the car. In the car he falls asleep. Doris turns the key and starts the car. She walks out of the garage closing all the doors and leaves Mr. Stevens to die. Before Doris does anything else she pours the sleeping solution down the drain.

            Chris decides to tell Mr. Stevens about the murder his wife committed and brings Molly along. Doris answers the door and tells Chris her husband has been asleep for hours. Molly drove him over in her car and by accident she put the car in reverse instead of drive. The car backs up to the garage. Chris hears the engine running and someone inside. He gets out of the car and finds Mr. Stevens on the floor of the garage. At the same time the maid comes back with the police suspecting something is going on. They are just in time to see Chris take Mr. Stevens out of the garage. Doris pretends to play dumb for a while and lie and then she confess her plan to kill her husband once she sees he is alive.

            Obviously there is no court scene and the title Crown vs. Stevens makes no sense. The film is light with a little suspense. Some of the acting is a little over the top but for the most part all the actors did very well. The studio that made this film was a sister studio to Warner Bros. Warner Bros. saw Patric Knowles and brought him to California. Knowles is such a good actor I always enjoy seeing him in films. Crown vs. Stevens is not available on Youtube or DVD. It is not that great of a film but if TCM ever airs it again give it a watch. 

Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

“Our chance has come! Show no mercy! Let no power on Earth stop you! Prove to the world that no man could kill women and children and live to boast of it!”

            Of course I had to watch Charge of the Light Brigade. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland are in the film. Well, I should say it was just Errol Flynn because Olivia de Havilland was barely in it. Patric Knowles as Flynn’s brother was in the film more than de Havilland. If all three actors had not been in the film it would have been perfectly fine to skip. Pretty much as soon as the film started I was bored with it.

            I am not going into too much detail because as I said I was bored and there is no need for details. It takes place in the time when the British ruled India. There is a man named Surat Kahn who for the most part has been friendly to the British soldiers particularly Geoffrey Vickers (Flynn). Geoffrey has come to know the Kahn well and has a feeling that the man will not remain friendly for too long.

            Eventually the Kahn attacks a British garrison and orders all the women and children killed. Every man in Geoffrey’s regiment wants their revenge on the Kahn but they are ordered to fight the Russians in the Crimea War. The Kahn is hiding in Russia and is being protected by the Russian government. Geoffrey goes against orders and has his outnumbered troops follow him to face Surat Kahn.

            Mixed in this melodrama is an incredibly pointless love triangle between Geoffrey, his fiancée Elsa Campbell (de Havilland), and his brother Perry (Knowles).

            The cast main cast of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Patric Knowles is fabulous I just wish they had been used in a better film… yes I know they were in The Adventures of Robin Hood together! I am talking about the time they could have been put in a better film. This was Flynn and de Havilland’s second film together so I am sure that Warner Bros. just wanted to throw them in any film they could since they were such a successful pairing in Captain Blood. Knowles was the other Errol Flynn at Warner’s because he looked like him so it as an obvious choice to cast him as the brother. For some reason I could not get over de Havilland’s eyes they were so pretty in this film. Spring Byinton, Nigel Bruce, and Donald Crisp are also in the film. Byington was so wrongly used she the annoying wife of Nigel Bruce who constantly nagged him and was a gossip whore.

            Charge of the Light Brigade did very well when it was released. I can see how was successful at the time Errol Flynn was a handsome man and was put into a perfect setting. If you are not a fan of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland skip the film and watch their other much better films.

 

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

“It is with me now, so many years later. And it makes me think of so much that is good, that is gone.”

            How Green Was My Valley was originally bought by 20^th Century- Fox with intentions to make it a four hour rival to Gone with the Wind. While I liked How Green Was My Valley I thank God that this film was not made into a four hour epic like Gone with the Wind. At two hours and fifteen minutes the film with its subject of unionism and poor people working at a mine in Wales in the late 1800s was long enough to drive me a little crazy after a while.

            The story is told as a flashback by Huw Morgan (voiced by Walter Pidgeon). He is leaving his small Welsh town where so much happiness and heartbreak has happened in his life. Huw (younger Huw is played by Roddy McDowell) was the youngest of seven children with three much older brothers and one older sister named Angharad (Maureen O’Hara). His older brothers work with the father in the local coal mine. The first memories Huw recalls are of his older brother Ivor (Patric Knowles) getting married to a young woman from the next village named Bronwyn and the new pastor of the local chapel, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon), and Angharad locking eyes at church. When Huw first sees Bronwyn he immediately falls in love with her he thinks she is the prettiest thing he has ever seen. At the church after the wedding Mr. Gruffydd throws rice at Angharad to get her attention.

            At the coal mines the wages have gone down. The older brothers say that the wages will continue to go down because men are coming from other areas where they cannot find work. They say there needs to be a union but the father does not want to hear it. Since the father will not listen three of the older brothers leave the house to live in a local inn. The men in the mine go on a strike of the mine that lasts for twenty-two weeks. The men oppose Mr. Morgan because he opposed the strike. Mrs. Morgan hears of a workers meeting on a hill. The weather is terrible with snow blowing furiously but she goes to the hill and lets everyone know that if they so much as harm her husband they will have her to deal with. On the way home Mrs. Morgan and Huw fall in a small lake. Mother and son are saved and survive the bitter coldness but both are laid up for months because their legs were frozen solid. Mr. Gruffydd comes to the house and tells Huw to have faith that he will walk again. In the spring time the mother finally comes downstairs after being in her bed for months and Huw is finally ready to go outside. Mr. Gruffydd comes to take the boy out for a walk in the valley.

            With the help of Mr. Morgan and Mr. Gruffydd the strike ends and the men go back to work. Unfortunately there are more men looking for work than there are positions. Wales is in a bad economic situation. Two of the older brothers see that this bad situation will not end soon and they tell the family they are traveling to America to seek work.

            One day the head of the coal mine comes to the Morgan house. He asks Mr. Morgan if it is alright if his son can come and call on Angharad. Mr. Morgan says that the son can come and ask for his daughter himself. The son comes over and he is an arrogant ass. Angharad does not want to be with the son she loves Mr. Gruffydd. She goes to the pastor to talk to him. He loves her deeply as well but he tells her he does not want her to live in the poverty he lives in where he depends on the kindness of the community. He does not want their children to have to wear worn old clothes from other children. He tells her he chose to live in poverty she did not and she does not have. Very unhappily Angharad marries the son.

            Huw gets into a national school and is the first of the family to do so. His first day of school does not go well. As soon as he walks in the young arrogant teacher is awful to him snobbily picking on him for being late and for being from a coal mining town. An older boy picks on him and beats him up. When Huw gets home his father calls two of the neighbors to come over to teach him boxing. The boxing works but the teacher comes out during yet another fight Huw has gotten into and beats the poor kid until he faints with his walking stick. Huw tells his brothers not to go to the teacher but the two men who taught him boxing go to the classroom the next day and pretend to be giving boxing lessons to the class and knock the bastard teacher out teaching him a good lesson.

            An accident at the mine happens one day. Unfortunately Ivor was caught in the cave in and he died. He left behind Bronwyn and a new baby. Huw not much later is asked by his father if he wants to go on to the second level of school where he can have a proper education and go to college. Since the death of Ivor he has chosen to work in the mines. Mr. Morgan is so upset he goes out drinking all night. As Bronwyn is leaving she says aloud how lonely she in the house without Ivor. She says that every night she lays out his clothes like he still alive. Mrs. Morgan has Huw go over the Bronwyn’s house and proposes that he live with her so she is not so lonely anymore and she can lay out his clothes. As he speaks to her his voice cracks because he is trying to act like a grown up but he is still the little boy with a crush on his sister-in-law.

            The two older brothers still left in the house are left go from the mine because they had some of the highest wages. They too decide to leave to seek jobs outside the country. Huw takes a map and draws lines from Wales to where the brothers are scattered all over the world. One brother is in New Zealand, another in Canada, and another in a far off remote country. Angharad has been in Cape Town with her husband but has come back to Wales by herself. The head maid of her husband’s house has been with the family for thirty-seven years and makes poor Angharad nervous beyond measure (she is remarkably like Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca). The wicked old maid spreads rumors that Angharad and the husband are most likely getting a divorce and that she is in love with Mr. Gruffydd. As time goes on the rumors turn to poison and spread throughout the valley. The deacons call a meeting at the chapel to throw Mr. Gruffydd out of the church and to denounce Angharad. Mr. Gruffydd who is a spiritual man more than a preacher winds up denouncing the deacons and the parishioners for their sins of not being kind to others and only seeing the worse in people not the good. He is furious that the villagers have the nerve to accuse him behind his back but not to his face. He walks out of the meeting and so does Huw.

            In the dark night the whistle at the mine screeches and screeches a warning call that something is terribly wrong in the mine. Even Angharad comes running from her house beyond the hills. All the villagers run out at the sound and they see a huge explosion coming from down below. Mr. Morgan went down into the mine. He does not come up with the rest of the men. Mr. Gruffydd, Huw, and two other men who are loyal to Mr. Morgan go looking for him in the flooded mine. They mind him trapped between rocks and debris. Huw goes to his father and Mr. Morgan winds up dying with his arms around his boy.

            The ending of the film has Huw reminiscing to the times when his family was all together when his brothers and sister still lived at home and they were all happy. He pictures all four of his older brother walking across the valley to come and greet him.

            This film was so beautiful in so many ways. All the actors were excellent in their roles. Maureen O’Hara is barely in it and she is on the cover of the DVD. Whatever scene no matter how small it was she was radiant. O’Hara was twenty-one years old when she made this film and goodness was she beautiful. Walter Pidgeon played such a wonderful character and did such a magnificent job I cannot think of anyone else that could have done better. I really liked how Mr. Gruffydd was a more spiritual preacher he was not a traditionalist he saw God was everywhere and loved everyone no matter what their sins were which was very unusual for the time. Patric Knowles is not in the film very much he plays the oldest brother Ivor. He did not have many lines either but good lord when he was in a scene he was so handsome! The moment he came on the screen I could not get over how good looking he was! His character was very sweet and very nice. He ran the town choir and was invited to perform in front of the Queen in London and when he reads the note he is adorable. Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood played Mr. and Mrs. Morgan. I liked both of them a lot. Again the casting was excellent. And just to think if the film had been made into the epic proportions it was originally intended to be Tyron Power was up for a main part and Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Oliver were considered for parts. THANK GOD all three were not cast!

            John Ford got some beautiful shots and made such a moving film. Shot I could not get over is when Mrs. Morgan finds out that Ivor died. She just leans against the doorway with the saddest blank stare. Ford filmed her in full body shot and then he pans the camera down and films her looking up. The shot and Sara Allgood’s acting just made an incredible shot it was so sad that I found myself tearing up a bit.

            How Green Was Valley is a good film but I felt it a little bit too long with its subject of unions and a once large happy family growing apart from the coal mine. I mean I understand it was long to get the whole story in and it the screenwriter did a great job but for me it was a little too long. I did like the theme of this family going through so many hardships and always managed to move along to another day. How Green Was My Valley is an excellently directed and acted film that is definitely worth giving it a try if you can find it. 

It's Love I'm After (1937)

“You're going to have love for breakfast, love for luncheon and love for dinner. Sweet, sugary, sticky worship. You're going to have a steady diet of it till you're ready to scream - you billygoat!”

            At first I thought It’s Love I’m After was a drama. I mean look at the poster Olivia de Havilland looks pissed off at something and when I think of comedies Leslie Howard and Bette Davis (and even de Havilland for that matter) are not the first actors that come to mind. I thought this was going to be a silly melodrama where Davis and de Havilland fight for Howard. I was very pleasantly surprised when the film started out on the funny side and just completely took off in that direction.

            Basil Underwood (Howard) and Joyce Arden (Davis) are two of the stage's best actors. They are currently on tour with Romeo and Juliet in California on New Years. It is clear they are not on speaking terms as they each hit, say mean things, and block each other at every moment they can. When the show is over they at each other’s throats bickering hurling nasty comments.

            In the audience that night was a star struck young girl named Marcia West (de Havilland). She has it hard for Basil sitting in her seat with the look of undying love and devotion on her face. When the show is over she sneaks away from her fiancé Henry(Patric Knowles) and her parents to go see Basil. She bribes the man at the stage door to let her in and she is more than elated to see her favorite actor. Basil likes her as well because he likes to hear people adoring him.

            Basil and Joyce have an all out ego brawl back at their hotel. Joyce has the door locked and blocked with furniture but Basil comes in through her window. He plays it cool and just gives her a look and she pretty much melts.  It comes to light that they have tried to get married twelve times before but it never works out something always gets in the way. They decide to marry for real this time but then that something that keeps them from marrying comes up again. Henry wants to speak to Basil. Marcia does not want to marry him now because she is so in love with Basil, he asks the actor to pretend to be in love with her but to do things to make her fall out of love with him. Basil agrees mostly because Henry’s father saved him during the Depression and he owes the family a bit of a favor.

            Basil and his butler Diggs (Eric Blore) leave Joyce behind late at night. They get to Marcia’s house late at night and wake the whole house up playing along trying to get the family and Marcia to hate him. They are both loud and obnoxious but Marcia cannot be more thrilled to see him and backs him up saying that she invited them. The more Basil acts like a jerk the more Marcia defends him. At first he cannot take it but then he starts to fall for her because again she is feeding his ego.

            Diggs calls Joyce to come to the house because Basil is driving him nuts and really falling for Marcia. Basil and Marcia were kissing in the garden when Joyce comes. She sees them and pretends to be his wife. Marcia and the whole situation gets way too much for Basil so he leaves. But when he gets back to his room Marcia is in his bed (fully clothed, this is 1937) and she is thrilled to be there. Thankfully Henry comes in and yells at Basil. Marcia sees how Henry is acting towards Basil and she falls back in love with him. She even gets in on yelling at the actor. The happily back together couple walk out as Basil just goes on and on about a play.

            Joyce comes back and she and Basil make up.

            Olivia de Havilland deserves all the praise because she made this film so funny. From the moment she first comes on screen you have to laugh. She was so freaking adorable she makes your teeth hurt. De Havilland was like a little girl with this big crush (which was the point) and she played the character so perfectly. I love seeing de Havilland in comedies because I am used to seeing her in serious roles that when she is being funny she is great. I think this film just proves what a great actress she was, she was very versatile.

            Leslie Howard annoys me. He was a good actor but he just bothers me for me some reason. Besides Gone with the Wind whatever I have seen him in he always seems so stuck up and too good for the film. But those things being said he was perfect as the conceited actor who likes to ham everything up and have people praising him. Bette Davis to me always seems to be kind of frantic and neurotic in her roles which comes off as annoying but here those qualities worked perfectly. This has to be my favorite film of her's that I have seen. Eric Blore as Diggs is always fun to see in a film he stole a lot of scenes from Leslie Howard. I always love seeing Patric Knowles in a film he was adorable.

            Of course being a Gone with the Wind fan I found it interesting to see Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard together two years before their famous pairing. Now I will most likely be laughing a little whenever I see Ashley and Melanie together in GWTW.

            The highlight (and the one that perfectly describes Marcia) of the whole film comes at the end when Marcia yells at Basil for playing on her infatuation with him. It is funnier and better if you see it:

            It’s Love I’m After is hysterical I loved sitting through every moment of it. There are so many great scenes that cannot be explained properly and Olivia de Havilland’s performance so fantastic that you will have to sit through the film to know why I had such a good time. It’s Love I’m After is one of the best comedy films to come out of the 1930s. 

Four's a Crowd (1938)



“You people don’t want to get married you want to get divorced”

            Four’s a Crowd is one of many fun and enjoyable screwball comedies to come out of the 1930s. The cast is not what you could consider your usual comedy actors with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland who are known for their period films together as the main actors. Rosalind Russell plays newspaper woman Jean Christy. Her whole life is the newspaper and almost falls to pieces when she hears the paper may be shutting down. She runs into her boss’s office asking what is going on. Pat really seems to not care and on top of everything he is late for a date.

            Jean runs to Bob Lansford (Flynn) who is a public relations manager. Bob is very charming and very sly and handsome. That night they crash Pat’s date with a girl named Lorri Dillingwell. (de Havilland). Bob is not on good terms with Lorri’s grandfather who was a client of his; he told Bob if he were to ever see him again he would send his dogs after him. Bob charms the pants off of Lorri even stealing her away and taking her home. Mr. Dillingwell was not kidding around when he said that he would send his dogs after him! Bob gets to the gate and closes it before the dogs could get him. One of the dogs has his tail sticking out of the gate which Bob takes and bites it! Jean pulls up in a cab at this point and all she can do is laugh.

            As a way of getting back at Dillingwell, Bob picks a small article out about the man that does not show the business man in a good light so he takes the small article and blows it out of proportion. Dillingwell is not one of the most hated men in America. The paper the slanted story came from was the one that Jean and Pat work for.

            Bob also sees the smear campaign as a good way to work with Dillingwell to get him good publicity.

            After this I found the plot to be a little complicated and cannot find a way to properly explain the rest.

            The film was not that popular when it was released because the audience wanted to see Errol Flynn with a sword in his hand and de Havilland as his leading lady that was seldom seen. I have been reading a good book called The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger and she explains how because the public only knew both actors together in their period costumes the film did not do so well. They were playing against type. All the studios used to cast their actors in as many roles as possible to see which type of film fit their stars better and just cast them in those roles forever. In today’s Hollywood sometimes actors and actresses are praised for going outside their comfort zone but the audience and critics pretty much have the same attitude on occasion with a star going against type.

            I liked seeing Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland play these different characters. Flynn was so handsome and so good playing comedy. He had that smooth but quick wit and soft touch which is often seen in old comedies. One of Flynn’s scenes I found to be really funny was when he was on two different phones talking to Lorri and Jean. He held one phone away from him so the one woman would not hear the conversation while he talked to the other. The back and forth between the phones and both women was so good. At the end of the conversations Bob looked so flustered. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loved Olivia de Havilland in this film. She was twenty-one at this time and so damn adorable! She is so girlie and silly as Lorri. The first time I had ever watched de Havilland in a film was Gone with the Wind where she was all serious and in period costume. Since she is always in period costume it is nice to see de Havilland act in a modern setting.  Here she was marvelously silly. A good scene for both de Havilland and Flynn is when Bob stays at Lorri’s house for the night. He goes down to the kitchen with a nightlight and two guards outside think he is a robber. He quickly has to hide so the guards will not arrest him so he ducks into Lorri’s room. He knocks over a table waking Lorri up and she screams and her little dog starts barking. Bob pretty much dive tackles Lorri off her bed onto the floor to tell her to keep quiet. He lies to her telling her he is in her room because he loves her and that quiets her. Between her screams and the dog’s bark the guards and her maid come to her door. Lorri flitters around the room telling everyone she had a nightmare and that is why she was screaming. The part I cracked up with was when Lorri explaining to her maid that she had a nightmare and that was all and she pretends to fall back to sleep as she talks. I enjoyed seeing Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland going against type and playing comedic roles. It is a shame they did not get to do something like this again in their careers.

            Jean Christy is a prelude to Hildy Johnson from His Girl Friday who is perhaps Rosalind Russell’s most famous and well known film character. As soon as Russell said she was a reporter all I could think of was Hildy. Even as Jean, Russell was very feisty and quick and confident. Her scenes with Errol Flynn were fantastic. They were both the charming, over confident characters that were clearly made for each other. Their best scene to me was when Jean grabs Bob’s hair and he takes her hand and bites it.

            Unfortunately I do not know too much about Patric Knowles who played Pat. I did not really find him to be a good character. The film would have been better off if it were called Three’s a Crowd. Apparently Warner Bros. had Knowles under contract as their Errol Flynn replacement. The two actors even look alike at certain times.

            Michael Curtiz directed Four’s a Crowd. The more I find out what Curtiz directed during his career the more I find him very talented and versatile. To me he will always be the director of Casablanca which he did to perfection but his other films that I have seen have impressed me.

            Four’s a Crowd is a very cute and funny film. Unfortunately because it was not well received when it was first released it is not widely known about today. The plot and the script is truly a mess and if it had not been for the cast it would not be remotely known at all.  If you really think about you can see that Four’s a Crowd is a Warner Bros. rip off of Libeled Lady with William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, and Jean Harlow. Even the beginning credits are exactly the same. The only advantage Four's a Crowd has is that the ending is nicely tied up where as in Libeled Lady it feels like the writers did not know how to end it.

            As of right now Four’s a Crowd is available to view on youtbe and it is available on DVD.