Bette Davis, at the height of her fame, took a gracious backseat to Monty Woolley in this sharp, acerbic screwball comedy of ill-manners - The Man Who Came To Dinner.
Based on the 1939 Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (‘You Can’t Take It With You’), two playwrights who decided to make a satire about celebrity at that time after meeting various characters such as the renowned Alexander Woollcott, a flamboyant and out-spoken theater critic who considered himself the master of sardonicism and insults along with Noel Coward and Harpo Marx - three celebs who used to meet regularly at the Algonquin Hotel to exchange barbs and witticisms at lunch. Kaufman and Hart caught wind of this and decided to poke a little fun. That the play and ultimately the film adaptation works without knowing that the characters they created are thinly-veiled caricatures of real-life personalities makes the material timelessly accessible.
Monty Woolley, who reprised his role of Sheridan Whiteside (aka Alexander Woollcott) from the play only after John Barrymore bailed due to problems with the dialogue, is clearly the star of the show even though he is billed behind Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan. Bette Davis, a big fan of the play and playing a big part in Warner Brothers making the film, took the smallish role of Whiteside’s unflappable secretary.
We meet Sheridan Whiteside (Woolley as Woollcott), a popular radio show host intellectual traveling across country on a lecture tour with his secretary Maggie Cutler (Bette Davis). In his latest stop in a small town in Ohio, he begrudgingly accepts a dinner invitation from a prominent local family, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Stanley (Mitchell and Burke). Making his way up the ice-laden steps of the Stanley household porch, he slips and injures himself on the roll down the steps. Spewing insults and threats as he is being carried into the house, the local doctor informs him and the Stanley family that he needs to remain house-ridden for a while.
Whiteside begins to take advantage of the naďve, middle-America family, by throwing out the threat of a lawsuit. Demanding the control of some prominent rooms and the phone line, Whiteside throws the family into chaos, throwing insults at anyone unfortunate enough to walk into his path. Advising the Stanley children to break out of the constraints of their parents, dutifully putting up with Ernest’s strange sister (who seems “right out of The Hound of the Baskervilles”), and sharing an even more venomous rapport with his personal nurse.
As his stay wears on and as he continues to bark orders at everyone like a king from his wheelchair throne, he also racks up a huge phone bill, receives exotic animals (penguins run rampant in the library) and entertains various guests. Reginald Gardner pops in (doing a take on Noel Coward) and Jimmy Durante has an extended role towards the end of the film doing Harpo Marx. The plot thickens, however, when Maggie falls in love with a local, aw-shucks reporter/playwright Bert Jefferson (Richard Travis). Whiteside refusing to lose his confidant and secretary (and one of the few people who can stand him), conspires to bring in an actress siren friend of his Lorraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan) to seduce the unsuspecting Jefferson.
A film clearly inspired by the stage - the majority of the film takes place in the Stanley living room with Woolley constantly in the center of the action as various characters enter and exit the screen every few minutes with the dialogue and the timing of the comedy all clearly designed for the stage. This fact does not make the film any less enjoyable, however, as Monty Woolley has crafted a great comic performance here.
Effortlessly spewing out continuous lines of blistering insults, his delivery and mannerisms all make for a highly entertaining character with quite a few laugh out loud deliveries that I find uncommon for comedies of this era. I’m a huge fan of comedies of the 30s and 40s but very rarely do I find myself actually laughing at these films. It’s usually more of an amused reverence.
Jimmy Durante also pops up later in the film to provide some laughs spoofing himself and Harpo Marx at the same time. Ann Sheridan has the thankless role of screen vixen and Bette Davis mostly plays the straight man to Woolley’s quips but does a fine job with a little melodrama towards the climax.
The film is topical but not discouragingly so. There are many references to personalities of the time from Eleanor Roosevelt to Lana Turner to the actual satiric creation of three characters, but the films remains highly enjoyable for those unfamiliar with these references and if you do know who these characters are? – well, it provides that much more enjoyment.
The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 4:3 full screen. Special Features include a short 11-minute featurette “The Man Who Came to Dinner: Inside a Classic Comedy” which details some of the stories behind the film and explains some of the more obscure references. Also included is a Vintage Joe McDoakes Comedy Short ‘So You Think You Need Glasses’ and a Swing music short (the back of the DVD box incorrectly labels this short as a “Classic Cartoon”) ‘Six Hits and a Miss’ along with the film’s theatrical trailer.
This film is one of the two comedies Bette Davis made for William Keighley in 1941 (the other was “The Bride Came C.O.D.” opposite James Cagne). Davis rarely did comedy and ensemble, but this film proves she is capable of almost anything. Yet, Monty Woolley is the star of the show here providing a zesty farce with countless witticisms and barbs being delivered with a joy bubbling up just under the cynicism in a role he clearly relishes.
The Man Who Came To Dinner is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information. The film is also part of the Bette Davis Collection Vol. 2 DVD set now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information about the set.
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