I Married a Witch (1942) - Stars shine in Clair's bubbly screwball fantasy magic

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A sexually charged and very elegant poster for René Clair's I Married a Witch

A refined gentleman, who is poised to marry a fine woman, has his plans altered when he rescues a strange blond out of a burning hotel. This alluring female turns out to be a centuries old witch, who wants to change his life drastically!

 

I Married a Witch is written by Marc Connelly (Reunion in France (1942)) and Robert Pirosh (A Gathering of Eagles (1963)), with André Rigaud (Bright Eyes (1929)), Dalton Trumbo (Hawaii (1966)) and co-writer/producer/director, great French filmmaker René Clair (Paris Asleep/Paris qui Dort (1925)) contributing lines. It is an adaptation of The Passionate Witch (1941) by Thorne Smith (Rain in the Doorway (1933), finalized after his death by Norman H. Matson.

With a stunning visual energy (cinematography by Ted Tetzlaff (I Want a Divorce (1940))) and a splendid special effects tangent, I Married a Witch is an atypical screwball comedy that waltzes right into your heart and activates your laugh muscles. Fredric March (The Buccaneer (1938)) is a joy as usual, and he is wonderfully matched here with Veronica Lake (Isn't It Romantic (1948)), who is almost superhumanly lovely, - and a bit eerie, - as a cute housewife with allure and frighteningly huge power. A prime example of the 'monstrous female' on film.

Cecil Kellaway (Spinout (1966)) who plays Lake's father in the film is also delightful. Witty dialog, a rapidly flowing plot, and a beautifully carried out production, I Married a Witch is cheeky fun all the way. A bright favorite. 

 

Related post:

 

René Clair: Entr'acte (1924, short) - Clair's creative experiment in movement

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Approximately 2.75 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain but likely a huge hit (projected return of 6.5 times its cost)

[I Married a Witch was released 30 October (North America) and runs 77 minutes. Shooting took place from April - May 1942 in Los Angeles, California. Hostilities ran between March and Lake during the shoot. Variety reported that the film earned a 1.1 mil. $ rental figure in North America, coming to approximately 2.75 mil. $ in box office. The foreign release was impeded by WWII and went slow over the next several years, likely with similarly stunted results. A 3.25 mil. $ final gross projection takes this into account, while a projected cost of 500k $ belies March, - the film's leading star's salary level of 100k $ per picture at the time. This would make the film a huge hit. It was nominated for one Oscar, for Best Music, Drama/Comedy (Roy Webb (Top Secret Affair (1957))), lost to Max Steiner for Now, Voyager. Clair returned with a segment in Forever and a Day (1943) and with an entire feature with It Happened Tomorrow (1944). March returned in The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944); Lake in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942). I Married a Witch is fresh at 96 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of I Married a Witch?

She's Funny That Way (2014) - Bogdanovich's probably last film isn't that funny

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This poster for Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way appears promising enough, if maybe a bit bland

 

A New York escort confesses to her psychologist how she over a brief period of time has made the acquaintances of a group of internally tangled persons...

 

She’s Funny That Way, written by Louise Stratten (City Island (2009, actress)) and great New-Yorker co-writer-director Peter Bogdanovich (What's Up, Doc? (1972)), is an attempt at an [Woody] Allenesque comedy. Regrettably, it doesn't work, mainly because it isn't funny enough, and also because it is hard to get sufficiently interested in the story's affluent characters and their problems.

Imogen Poots (Green Room (2015)), - who is British, - is charming as the escort and utilizes a heavy New-York accent that matches Mercedes Ruhl's in The Fisher King (1991). Jennifer Aniston (Along Came Polly (2004)) as the shrink has funny-bones and the kind of energy that is lacking from the performances of Owen Wilson (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) and Rhys Ifans (Mr. Nice (2010)), who play a couple of fools. Kathryn Hahn (Bad Moms (2016)) tries but also isn't particularly funny here. Keep your eyes peeled for several star cameos.

The style of She's Funny That Way is a peculiar blend of intellectual, verbally oriented comedy and the screwball kind that Bogdanovich famously and hilariously reanimated with What's Up, Doc?. The blend doesn't gel. But She’s Funny That Way is a Movie, and especially a Bogdanovich fan will still find it feasibly entertaining.

 

Related posts:

 

Peter Bogdanovich: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)

What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Screwball comedy revived for a wonderful show

The Wild Angels (1966) - Young biker rebels deliver a counter-culture punch in Corman's hands (co-writer) 

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 6 mil. $

= Unknown (but likely a big flop)

[She's Funny That Way premiered August 29 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. The script was written in 1999-2000 by Bogdanovich and ex-wife Stratten as a comedy collaboration to keep their spirits up during financial troubles, originally intended to be starring John Ritter (who died before production) and Cybill Shepherd, (who still plays a small role.) It was shot in New York in 29 days, starting July 11 2013, with some of the roles only getting cast during shooting. The North American distribution rights were acquired by Clarius Entertainment, who then dropped the film for unknown reasons, at which time Lionsgate Premiere picked it up for a small theatrical release and as VoD, (which is not accounted for in the box office figure above.) The film ran for 3 weeks, topping in 26 theaters in North America, were it grossed just 111k $ (1.9 % of the total gross). The biggest 3 markets were Russia with 822k $ (13.7 %), Italy with 597k $ (10 %) and Poland with 585k $ (9.8 %). Without a cost figure (and the VoD performance unknown), it isn't possible to make out the film's theatrical performance for sure, but if it was made cheap, on for instance a 5 mil. $ budget, the film would likely still rate as a big flop. She's Funny That Way is rotten at 39 % with a 5.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of She’s Funny That Way?

Weekend at Bernie's (1989) - Kotcheff's morbid gaga silliness

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One of the festive posters for Ted Kotcheff's Weekend at Bernie's

Weekend at Bernie's is a beloved dark comedy by writer Robert Klane (Weekend at Bernie's II (1993)) and director Ted Kotcheff (First Blood (1982)).

Two aspiring, young friends at a New York insurance company get lucky with a business find and get invited to their boss Bernie's luxurious vacation house. But when they find Bernie dead upon arrival, they decide to keep it a secret.

Bernie's allegedly started a trend of 'dead-person-comedies' and became a popular hit that attained near-cult popularity through endless TV reruns and video and DVD (and in 2014 Bluray) releases in the years following its theatrical release. A trivia note that is almost too obscure to mention is that it is revealed in one Friends' (1994-04) episode to be Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) favorite movie.
The film starts out great, and the two protagonists played by Andrew McCarthy (Less Than Zero (1987)) and Jonathan Silverman (Death Becomes Her (1992)) have good chemistry and energy. - In particular the scene of SPOILER Silverman's date, who comes home to his parents, (his father gets played by Kotcheff), is a riot.

One of the other upbeat posters for Ted Kotcheff's Weekend at Bernie's

The details:

The first scenes of the two friends' handling of dead Bernie are also quite funny, but then after a while it is clear that this will be the joke for the remaining more or less an hour of the film; their carrying, driving, boating and dragging poor, dead Bernie around everywhere. It becomes too silly and our two heroes become too idiotic at some point, losing our investment in them. Needless to say, the plot also becomes unlikely beyond any measure, and Bernie's develops from the farcical into a screwball-like crazy-comedy. Somewhere along the way, it begins to come off as a one-trick-pony, which squeezes every possible morbid variation out of its gimmick.
Terry Kiser (Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)) plays Bernie, which must have been difficult. Unfortunately, it is hard not to focus on the jerks and other ways that his 'corpse' moves, which a real one naturally wouldn't. (His skin color also stays almost the same throughout.)
All these objections aside, Bernie's is a good enough time, if not entirely deserving of any classic status.

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 30.2 mil. $ (US only)
= Box office success
[Bernie's spun a 1993 sequel, and was reportedly financially successful, although its reputation would make one think it bigger at its time than the case actually was. I have not been able to find any international gross figures, (beside that it made 400k £ in the UK and that 600k paid admission to see it in Germany.) This Variety article reports that Kane and Kotcheff sued Fox and MGM about a year ago, claiming that they have lost "at least hundreds of millions of dollars" due to the companies' neglect to pay them profits for Bernie's. I have found no conclusion to this truly wild accusation yet.]

What do you think of Weekend at Bernie's?
Other 'dead-person-comedies' possibly inspired by it, or which may have inspired it?

Bringing Up Baby (1938) - A screwy gathering

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Bright stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant on the silly poster for Howard Hawks' screwy Bringing Up Baby

QUICK REVIEW:

A paleontologist receives a rare bone and is getting married, when an odd woman derails these plans completely.
There are charming moments in this screwball comedy classic that tends to divide the waters, (some even consider it one of the greatest films of all times!), which was the last that great American director Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo (1959)) directed for RKO. Hawks stated later in life to Peter Bogdanovich (which can be read in his great interview-book Who the Devil Made It), - which seems to corroborate some to my rather lukewarm appreciation for Bringing Up Baby; - [the film] "had a great fault and I learned an awful lot from that. There were no normal people in it. Everyone you met was a screwball and since that time I learned my lesson and don't intend ever again to make everybody crazy."
Cary Grant (Notorious (1946)) is at times funny in his attempts at being amusing, while Katharine Hepburn (The African Queen (1951)) steams and adorns the screen, - but overall, the laughs are to far between in this wild drive of entanglements, set off by an utterly idiotic female character (Hepburn's, which also poses a problem for the film.)
The film has a strange subplot with animals, and its leopard-recordings are noteworthy. It is also noted for perhaps the screen's first use of the word 'gay' with homosexuality as its meaning, spoken by Grant in a dress, but definite proof on the point is missing.
Bogdanovich loves screwball comedies and contributed a fantastic laugh-fest with his own homage screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972) with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neil. I like it a lot better than Baby.
Here's a couple of stills of the strained stars in this zany comedy:

Related reviews:

What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Screwball comedy revived for a wonderful show
Howard Hawks: The Big Sleep (1946) - The sexiest noir carousel you will ever ride
Katharine Hepburn: The African Queen (1951) Classic romance bravura de Huston/Bogart/Hepburn

Watch some of the silliness of Bringing Up Baby here in its trailer

Budget: 1 mil. $
Box office: 1.1 mil. $
= Flop at release

What do you think of Bringing Up Baby?
Other screwball comedies that you think are recommendable?

Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style

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One telling, humorously ambiguous poster, ripe with sexual innuendo for Pedro Almodovár's Labyrinth of Passion

A female nymphomaniac pop star falls in love with a gay, Middle-Eastern prince.

 

Labyrinth of Passion is written by Terry Lennox (Hungry for You (1996)) and Spanish master filmmaker, co-writer/director Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)), whose 3rd feature it is.

It was made at the height of the Movida Madrileña period in Spanish film, near its end: A period of artistic wildness, experiments in sexuality and drugs, frivolity and hedonism coming after Spanish dictator Franco's death in 1975 and before the fatal arrival of AIDS in the 1980s.
The one-line plot outline above is just the main narrative center of the film, which is also about a dry cleaner's daughter, who is raped by her delusional father every other day; a gay terrorist who falls in love with the prince he is supposed to assassinate; a psychotherapist who is mad to make love to an old gynecologist, who loathes sex, until he has sex with his daughter. And a porn star. And a punk band. ...
It sounds chaotic and wild, and it is, and yet somehow it doesn't feel nearly as wild as it sounds. Some of that comes from the fact that all the incest and sex talk in Labyrinth carries no weight or importance with it whatsoever. The way it handles incest is shallow, (some will say offensive), if we need to be honest, and we need to since incest is such a serious issue.
It is all made in a sort of liberated craze, where none of the actions of the characters bear much weight; perhaps because Almodovár here swears to the super-light screwball comedy format, and still wants to throw heavy topics into his film.
In any case, Labyrinth of Passion is not a very good film. It among Almodovár's weakest films that I have seen, and it looks like a bunch of experiments and film-schooling in direction and storytelling that obviously paid off, because Almodovár became so incredibly good at it just a little later on, (his Law of Desire (1987), for instance, is a fantastic film.)
The fun basic idea that the script here reportedly came out of was that Madrid should be seen as the world's most important city; 'a city everyone came to, and where anything could happen.' This locally championing optimism carries some on into the finished film, but Almodovár has also admitted about the film himself: "I like the film even if it could have been better made. The main problem is that the story of the two leads is much less interesting than the stories of all the secondary characters. But precisely because there are so many secondary characters, there's a lot in the film I like."
While Labyrinth of Passion is not funny or smart enough to be a good film, and narratively is something of a jumble, it does feature Antonio Banderas (Law of Desire (1987)) in his second film, (the first, Pestañas Postizas (1982), premiered 8 days before Labyrinth of Passion), among many other Spanish actors, of whom none, however, can be said to really stick out and distinguish themselves in this film. Banderas plays the gay terrorist, who becomes infatuated with the prince he is supposed to help assassinate. With his heightened sense of smell, he tries to find the prince again in Madrid. Banderas is certainly one of the film's mollifying elements.

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 

I'm So Excited!/Los Amantes Pasajeros (2013) - Almodóvar flees with unfavorable comedy 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix

The Flower of My Secret/La Flor de Mi Secreto (1995) - Paredes star turn in charming Almodóvar work 

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Superficially worthwhile Almodóvar crime melodrama 
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 

 

Watch a clip for the film here

Cost: 21 mil. ESP, approximately 161k $
Box office: 98.6 mil. ESP, approximately 755k $ (Spain only)
= Big hit (returned 4.69 times its cost)

[Labyrinth of Passion premiered 25 September (San Sebastián Film Festivail) and runs 100 minutes. The budget, though small, was more than 3 times that of Almodóvar's preceding film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap/Pepi, Luci, Bom y Otras Chicas del Montón (1980). Shooting took place in Spain, including in Madrid, co-financed by local cinema chain Alphaville. One of Alphaville's Madrid cinemas kept screening the film at midnight for a decade. The film played solely in Spain until several years later, when it started spreading to more markets, as Almodóvar's star grew. Almodóvar returned with Dark Habits/Entre Tinieblas (1983). Cecilia Roth (El Angel (2018)) returned in Octubre, 12 (1982, short) and theatrically in Best Seller (1982); Imanol Arias (De Sable et de Feu (2019)) in La Colmena (1982); and Banderas in Y del Seguro... Líbranos Señor! (1983). Labyrinth of Passion is fresh at 92 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Labyrinth of Passion?

What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Screwball comedy revived for a wonderful show

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Even the credits and poster work is brimming with spirit and right on the money for Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc?

Four highly important plaid overnight bags get mixed up in San Francisco around a musicologist doctor, who is in town with his fiancee Eunice to compete for a grant.

Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl (1968)) is the sprawling stranger who begins to impersonate the doctor's wife, hilariously played by master comedienne Madeline Kahn (Blazing Saddles (1974)). Ryan O'Neal (Barry Lyndon (1975)) is the very cute and confused Doc in the middle. Both Streisand and O'Neal look sweet as pie, and they also have great screen chemistry. They are sexy and funny in What's Up, Doc?, often at the same time.
But this is not merely a mix-up romcom, but also an homage to all the old, classic screwball comedies as made by Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby (1938)), Frank Capra (Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)), Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve (1941)) etc. in the high days of Old Hollywood. Gender-related mix-ups with gags of all kinds involved, it is a genre I have sometimes thought too silly to be really funny, but in great New York filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich's (Targets (1968)) able and very enthusiastic vision, I am laughing and rejoicing in the calamities again and again.
Great Hungarian cinematographer László Kovacs (Easy Rider (1969)) supplies great crips pictures, and Bogdanovich has cast an incredible supporting cast to one outrageously funny character after the other. It all concludes in a memorable and quite elaborate chase through San Francisco and then a court room scene that simply puts the capital H in Hilarity.
The Streisand character is especially cartoonish, deliberately, SPOILER and the film's ending pays appropriate homage to Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes.
What's Up, Doc? will make you laugh and make you happy and perhaps also a bit nostalgic. It is written by Buck Henry (Catch-22 (1970)), David Newman (Superman (1978)) and Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)), based on Bogdanovich's story. It is one of my all-time favorite comedies and one that I can watch again and again and fall in love with all over every single time.
Bogdanovich is a somewhat under-appreciated American filmmaker and actor. He has made several good films, especially The Last Picture Show (1971), which, - on the other hand, - is an incredibly depressing film. He has also made many film documentaries, montages and books on filmmakers and actors. I just finished reading his Who the Hell's In It, which is an incredible joy to read for anyone who loves film and film stars. It features chapters on Bogdanovich's encounters/relationships with stars like John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Gish etc., including comments on their major achievements. - A great book from a great guy.

Related posts:

Peter Bogdanovich: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject) 
The Wild Angels (1966) - Young biker rebels deliver a counter-culture punch in Corman's hands (co-writer)

Watch the very unorthodox, unpretentious and funny trailer for the hilarious comedy, What's Up, Doc? here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 66 mil. $ + 3 mil. in 1973 re-run rentals (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned at least 17.25 times the cost)
[What's Up, Doc? premiered 9 March (New York) and runs 94 minutes. It was shot in New Jersey and California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, from August - December 1971. It became the 3rd highest grossing film of the year in North America, behind The Godfather and The Poseidon Adventure. The only international figure I have available is from Sweden, where the film was also a major hit with 1.1 mil. admissions there. The film's success closely tails the subsequent major hits Jaws (1975) and Star Wars: Episode VI - A New Hope (1977), said to have started the blockbuster term. The 1982 video release of the film garnered another 28.5 mil. $ in rentals. Bogdanovich returned with Paper Moon (1973). Streisand returned in Up the Sandbox (1972), O'Neal in The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973). What's Up, Doc? is fresh at 90% with a 7.4/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of What's Up, Doc??