LOVE AFFAIR (1939)

An international playboy, Michel, is traveling by liner across the Atlantic to be with his new fiancee who happens to be an heiress. By accident he meets an American woman, Terry, who herself is traveling alone to be with her wealthy fiancee. They talk and despite their resistance, it becomes very apparent that they are made for each other. A nice, simple romance ensues, but once they get to America they agree to part for six months and if they still want to be with each other then they meet at the observation deck of the Empire State Building at an appointed time.

Both Michel and Terry break off their engagements and work extra hard to build up some money. The fateful day comes and as Terry is walking up to the building she's struck by a car and her legs all fucked up. Now she's confined to a wheelchair and too embarrassed to talk to Michel, but Michel doesn't know any of this and he believes that she simply didn't want to see him. He's heartbroken.

I wasn't crazy about this movie. It's too sentimental for my tastes, plus it's very dated. I am a fan of both Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer, so I did enjoy it, but I'll never watch it ever again. The most positive thing I say about it is Irene Dunne was absolutely beautiful, especially during the final scene. Worth watching, but just barely.

Remade in 1957 as AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.

LIFE WITH FATHER (1947)

[Update 03/28/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Way back in ye olde 1880's NYC there's a loud, domestic tyrant of a father/husband (William Powell) who bellows all the time and rules his family with an iron fist...or so it appears.  In reality, his dingbat wife (Irene Dunne) ignores his constant screaming and pretty much lives her life in complete dream world. They have four boys who do normal boy stuff. That's the makings of good film, I guess, but just a few minutes into it Dunne finds out her husband hasn't been baptized!  The horror.  So for the remainder of the film she makes his life a living Hell and pesters him endlessly to get baptized. Is that suppose to be funny?  I just found it depressing.  This dude provides for his family, so they can live in absolute luxury and then when he goes home he has to listen to his wife preaching to him nonstop.  Ugh.

Powell and Dunne both do fine with their terrible roles, but that ain't saying much.  The only reason I can think of watching this downbeat clunker is Elizabeth Taylor.  Maybe I'll revisit LIFE WITH FATHER one day, but as for now I was hugely disappointed with it.  Skip it.

NEVER A DULL MOMENT (1950)

[Update 11/17/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Irene Dunne is a popular songwriter/singer who lives in New York City and one day at a charity auction she meets rodeo rider Fred MacMurray and BAM! a few weeks later they're married and living on his rundown farm with all his annoying country neighbors barging in the house 24/7 and raising Hell. I guess these jokes are suppose to be funny, but I just found it depressing to watch Irene Dunne sad because she's surrounded by a bunch of dimwitted assholes.

I didn't even smile once. Skip it.

TOGETHER AGAIN (1944)

[Update 08/06/2023: Need rewatch this film and redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

The always beautiful Irene Dunne is the widower who is also the mayor of the a small town. With so much responsibility she hasn't had any time for romance. A fact that her former father-in-law is frequent to bring up. One night during a thunderstorm lightening knocks the head off the statue of her late husband. Charles Coburn (the father-in-law) says it's a sign from her late husband to carry on with her life. Dunne laughs it off but when she meets the sculptor who's going to make a new statue she starts to maybe believe the story is true. The sculptor (Charles Boyer) is a very handsome man and instantly in love with Dunne.

Different romantic screwball hijinks take place and even though the beginning was a little slow it really starts to pick up steam in the second half, especially when Dunne's attractive teenage daughter accidentally thinks that the sculptor has proposed to her! That part was really funny.

Not the greatest Dunne movie, but I enjoyed it and would watch it again.

THEODORA GOES WILD (1936)

How much you like this film will probably depend on how much you're a fan of Irene Dunne and/or Melvyn Douglas. Myself, I'm not the world's biggest Douglas fan. I've seen a number of his films and he does nothing for me. All I can ever think about when I see him is how somebody else would have done such a better job in his role. On the other hand Irene is pretty good considering she's working with a boring script.

Let's talk about the story. There's a huge fuss going all over the country about this new steaming sex novel called "The Sinner". It's a nationwide bestseller, but nowhere is the fuss bigger than in the small hamlet of Lynnfield. The local newspaper published the first chapter and it caused the righteous old ladies to go berserk and raise such a stink that the newspaper agreed to stop printing the story. In the midst of all this crazy behavior is Irene Dunne, a quiet woman who lives with her three cunts, I mean, aunts. She's also secretly the author of "The Sinner". She had no idea her story would cause such an uproar and she'll do anything to keep her secret.

Enter the annoying Melvyn Douglas who finds out her secret and is now using his knowledge to blackmail Dunne into employing him as a gardener in the hopes of...well I'm not really sure what he's hoping for. Things happen (I'm not going to give it all away) and soon Dunne turns the tables on him and is now blackmailing him! That sounds like it could be funny and when I rented it I was hoping that it would be, but instead I just got a few chuckles and that's it. I would have loved to see what Preston Sturges could have done with that story idea instead. Skip it.