Synopsis
It's one, long, loud l-a-u-g-h!
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
1940 Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
William Powell Myrna Loy Frank McHugh Edmund Lowe Donald Douglas Nella Walker Carl Switzer Pierre Watkin Paul Stanton Morgan Wallace Charles Arnt Donnie Allen Hooper Atchley Raymond Bailey Barbara Bedford Joseph E. Bernard Gladys Blake Robert Blake Harlan Briggs Richard Clucas Nell Craig Hal Cooke Mary Currier Jack Daley Dix Davis John Dilson Edward Earle Dick Elliott Bess Flowers Show All…
Leon Gordon Charles Lederer Harry Kurnitz George Oppenheimer Octavus Roy Cohen Maurine Dallas Watkins
Cinematic Time Capsule
1940 Marathon - Film #31
”Can you imagine? I meet a girl, and in 20 minutes she’s going to divorce me”
William Powell & Myrna Loy are back for their ninth pairing, and once again, it’s another adventure packed with tons of fun and some terrific chemistry.
Powell stars as a cheapskate fuddy-duddy who’s hit on the head and wakes up to realize he’s actually a con man with amnesia that has no recollection of the last ten years. Why is he the hero of Habersville’s Chamber of Commerce? Who is this woman claiming to be his wife, and why does she want a divorce?
It’s a goofy film with lots of silly antics that probably wouldn’t work…
“you be careful, madam, or you'll turn my pretty head with your flattery.”
“i’ve often wished i could turn your head...on a spit...over a slow fire.”
what a riot!! the things i wouldn’t do for myrna loy to dump scrambled eggs on my head and william powell to swindle me out of all of my money!! adopt me already!!!
No matter how many times I watch and rewatch Powell/Loy movies, their chemistry on screen never ceases to amaze me. It´s nothing but pure magic. Never before and never again have I seen a Hollywood screen couple like that.
After a period of not watching old Hollywood movies, this was the first one and I immediately was caught again. The movies is amazingly cute, very funny and of course there are the two protagonists. A perfect show-case of how a good comedy has to look like.
Also there is something very special about Myrna Loy. Just when I hear her voice and that special lilt and the way she is speaking turns me into a flailing fangirl - every single…
Immaculate, unheralded comic masterpiece, with Bill Powell’s effortless tour-de-force as teetotal pillar of the community Larry “Grape Juice” Wilson, who gets a whack on the head and reverts to his old self – charming conman, George Carey. He heads home to raid the savings, only to fall in love with his own wife (Myrna Loy, naturally), who’s busy divorcing him.
Frank McHugh is hilarious as the phony medic along for the ride. Ingenious script by Charles Lederer, Harry Kurnitz and George Oppenheimer, whose hand seems most apparent. There’s the odd rough edge from Woody Van Dyke’s obsessive, breakneck one-take approach, but he certainly knew how to film comedy, especially with a script and cast as good as this one.
Move over Kay Francis. Powell really has the best chemistry with Loy. I like Loy's cool demeanour a lot. Had fun with this comedy, even though the plot is silly and it loses steam in the second half and the scouting scene is way too long. McHugh gives good support as Powell's sidekick without being annoying, and overall this was a very enjoyable watch for a lazy afternoon.
Can't go wrong with a William Powell & Myrna Loy outing. I Love You Again (1940) is not exactly of Thin Man quality, but I warmed up for Powell's goofy persona in this movie. Not quite sure about the story. There they could worked out a better scenario, but energetic performances make this a crazy conman story come alive. That and Myrna Loy of course.
A sick day film is a tricky thing. Light 30s comedies, musicals, animated favorites, and breezy romances are all my go-tos. Nothing too taxing; nothing with explosions or lots of nauseating action. However, when I’m really sick, I’m wary of watching old favorites, for fear of associating certain movies with unpleasantness (I learned from experience—I won’t be able to listen to Dion’s “Runaround Sue” for at least a year or two without feeling nauseous).
But this film...this film was ideal. Fluffy and funny, but not essential.
A little bit of HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, a little bit of THE LADY EVE...it makes me wish William Powell got to work with Preston Sturges. I LOVE YOU AGAIN gets a bit sidetracked with…
There are fewer pleasures in American cinema greater than the one that comes from watching William Powell and Myrna Loy flirt and fall in love on screen over, and over, and over again. The fact that they’re so wonderful together means that the scenes that don’t involve them inevitably suffer terribly by comparison (that’s particularly true here of the endless scouting scenes), but those scenes become immediately insignificant the moment Loy and Powell appear again.
All of these movies are such a gift, from the “worst” to the very best of them.
Myrna Loy and William Powell made marriage fun in the movies, so it's strange in this odd detour from their Thin Man films (which also has the same director, W. S. Van Dyke) to see them unhappy together. The story starts with them on the verge of a divorce. Of course, Powell's character hasn't been himself since he suffered a blow on the head almost a decade earlier. Amnesia plots tend to be far fetched, and this doesn't even try to be convincing. But it quickly commits to its silly set up and lets the comedy happen. Loy and Powell's easy going charisma papers over most of the plot holes and character inconsistancies (a lot of people act extraordinarily dumb, even for a comedy). The film tends to follow Powell's character, and Powell is given more crude slapstick to have fun with than in his usual urban sophisticate guise.
give me 10 more hours of bill powell trampling through bushes in a boy scout uniform and making cooing bird noises
THE DIALOGUE
THE COMEDY
THE TIMING
THE CHEMISTRY
THE PLOT
THE COOING
THE ENTIRE SCENE OF WILLIAM POWELL DRESSED AS A BOY SCOUT LEADER
Fun with Nick and Nora. Lots of witty stuff.
However, dig this:
Powell gets knocked on the head and realizes that he suffers from amnesia. Or something. Anyway, he goes from being the staid loser to a conman with a past.
While he falls in love with his wife, we never quite figure out how these two lives reconcile. But it is fun. Still, I'd choose Nick and Nora.
this was fun but i don't understand why he didn't just say "hi i have amnesia can you please help me fill in the gaps"
It's not as good as The Thin Man, but Loy & Powell can make anything seem charming and hilarious.
3.6 I liked this film and thought the plotline was clever and dialog witty throughout. William Powell is great but I just thought there was not enough of Myrna Loy. I think I just wanted another Thin Man movie.
Why do Myrna and Bill movie plots revolve solely around their alcohol consumption and why do I enjoy that so much? They truly are so perfect and this film has some hilarious innuendos.
I love this goofy movie. It’s so fun and silly. Absolutely love Myrna and William in this.
The chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy is, as always, incomparable. Powell is particularly funny here as a boring pillar of the community who gets bopped on the head and realizes that he is actually a con man who has been suffering from amnesia for nine years.
Myrna and William are my favorite on screen couple. Love them in this movie and the Thin Man. This one is just so cute and funny with all their wacky behaviors and comedy blended perfectly. Love Frank McHugh in this too.
Larry Wilson is a passenger on a cruise ship whom the other passenger perceive as especially boring. One night after he inadvertently saves a drunk passenger who falls overboard, he gets hit in the head by an oar during the rescue. Upon regaining consciousness, he has no idea who Larry Wilson is. Instead, he claims to be a George Carey, a career swindler and con artist whose last memory is his intention to place a bet on the Schmeling-Stribling fight nine years earlier.
Further surprises await him when upon arriving at the N.Y. docks a woman is awaiting him. A woman who turns out to be Larry Wilson's wife but whom George Carey does not remember. Things get even more…
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