Monday, April 09, 2007
FARCE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Preston Sturges'
It isn't very good. I seem to be the only one who thinks so.
Claudette Colbert decides to divorce Joel McRae so she can marry a rich husband who will give money to Joel to build a dream project.
The lines are snappy and the characters are goofy.
This is one of those films that excuses its slackness by claiming itself a 'screwball comedy'.
All they needed was someone getting slapped in the face with a fish.
Joel McCrea is good looking; a hunk of the era.
Colbert is smart.
Rudy Vallee is the candidate millionaire and Mary Astor is his sister.
There are a lot of the usual players of the time; William Demarest, Franklin Pangborne and the like.
And there is a small cameo for Jack Norton who was in an astonishing 184 films, then television. He had a wide variety of skills but mostly he played one of the funniest drunks in show business.
And we know that drunks are not really funny, eh?
Also Sig Amo, a german actor who did over 150 films with an accent so thick you could not understand him. His specialty was acrobatic stunts, falls, and clever comic bits. A clown.
I did have fun and will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: best films
