kenjha A man named Casanova becomes involved with a number of women and a cute baby. This attempt at screwball comedy has a few amusing moments but much of the humor is forced. Despite the efforts of veteran screenwriter Johnson and director Woods, the film takes a while to get going and soon runs out of steam. Cooper tries hard but can't overcome the weak script. Morgan comes off best, playing Cooper's would-be father-in-law. Wright is perky as Cooper's wife, but seems too young for him; there was an age difference of over 17 years between them. Interestingly, the baby girl is played by a fellow named Billy Chapin, who went on to have a brief acting career before retiring at age 16.

SimonJack The vast number of good comedy movies made over the years are single theme films. That is, the comedy is the focal point of the film, around which it plays itself out. It stands alone, regardless of the plot. Examples of this are "Harvey," "Kind Hearts and Coronets," "Arsenic and Old Lace." In the case of comedy romances, the romances are usually a big part of the comedy. Examples are, "His Girl Friday," "It Happened One Night," and "The Importance of Being Earnest."But, there are occasional comedies that have a second theme distinct and recognizable from the main humor dialogue. These are most often distinct plots around and through which the comedy is interwoven. One such group is the comedy adventure. Some very entertaining comedy adventures include "Around the World in 80 Days," "The Great Race," and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines". "Casanova Brown," is in another group of two-theme films that includes some very great movies. These are the films that have themes with a message or that support strong values. The second theme is the basis for the comedy being developed. The comedy is built around the value theme, even if the latter is hidden for some time in the film. Very good examples of this are "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "My Man Godfry."What is the second theme, or building theme of "Casanova Brown?" It's sentiment that revolves around families and love of children – especially a father's love for his baby. That's the whole plot of this move, and it drives the humor after the opening scenes. This isn't among the best of such films, but it is a very good one. "Casanova" is a very good, entertaining film, with overall good acting and directing. Top notch performances are given by Gary Cooper, Frank Morgan, Edmund Breon, Mary Treen, and Emory Parnell. The film has three hilarious scenes. The first involves a cigarette that burns down a house. The second is Cooper's physical exam when he goes to meet a doctor at a maternity hospital. The third is Cooper and his helpers caring for the baby in the hotel room. The most hilarious lines of dialogue occur in a few exchanges. Morgan asks Cooper about the girl he had met and married. "What was she like?" he asked. "Have you ever seen the sun come up at dawn?" Cooper replies. Morgan answers, "I have. It nauseated me."In another scene, Cooper has an exchange with the hotel clerk about goat's milk. The clerk says, "Why don't you get yourself some goldfish? No trouble at all, and they die over night."In the hotel room, Cooper talks about reducing the formula to slow down the baby's weight gain. The bell captain, Parnell, says, "Why don't you put a little gin in it?" Cooper replies, "Gin?" Parnell says "Well, that's the way they say they make jockeys – put a little gin in their Wheaties."In the hotel lobby, a group of people are standing and waiting for the elevator, including the character played by Breon. Morgan walks in with his wife and daughter and brusquely pushes through the group to the elevator button and pushes it. ""Very shrewd move," Breon says to him. Morgan snaps back, "Not at all. You'd have done it yourself if it had occurred to you." I laughed so hard on that one that I had to stop the DVD and back up to go from that point. One very curious thing about this film was its time of release. It came out in September, 1944, so it was likely being made well before the June 6 D-Day landings at Normandy. The country was then in the thick and thin of World War II. Perhaps that's one reason why the strong family and love of children theme stood out to me. The viewing audience first seeing this film were people on the home front working to support our troops, and worrying about loved ones off at war. So, the strong family heartstrings would be felt by that audience, where that may not be so obvious to viewers today. Another curious thing about this film was its lack of any reference to the war going on. Nowhere in the film is there mention or even a hint of the war. That must have been intentional. The filmmakers likely had to go out of their way to not have something about the war be seen or inadvertently filmed. A rare shot of a street scene in Chicago showed an early 1940s model car. Also, in the hospital waiting room and at the baby viewing window, there were no very young fathers – all appeared to be in their 30s or older. By 1943, the draft age range had dropped to between 18 and 38 years of age. About one in five men were then being inducted. Cooper was then 37 years old, but his character was 31 years old. So, this is one of the very few films I know of in the midst of World War II that shows civilian families going on with their lives and having children.

jotix100 Gary Cooper was equally at home doing drama or comedy, as he proves in "Cassanova Brown", a 1944 Paramount vehicle that reunited the winning team of "The Pride of the Yankess". Sam Wood directed again and Teresa Wright played the female lead. Based on a play co-written by veteran actor Thomas Mitchell, this hardly seen movie is worth a look whenever it shows on cable. Nunnally Johnson, one of the geniuses of that era in Hollywood adapted the material for the screen and produced it.Mr. Cooper makes a great contribution to the film as the absent minded English professor who returns back to his small mid western town vowing never to set foot in New York. Casanova, or Cass, asks Madge to marry him and just as they are about to say "I do", a letter, somewhat mysterious, arrives from a maternity hospital in Chicago. Intrigued by the missive, he decides to solve the puzzle, but little does he know what is in store for him.In flashbacks we get to know what happened to Cass in New York. It involved his having fallen in love with the beautiful Isabel Drury. As he is about to ask for her hand, Mrs. Drury, a woman who is into horoscopes, planets, and stars, sees trouble ahead. An incident with a lit cigarette butt causes much unhappiness to all and he flees in horror, leaving Isabel to fend for herself.When Cass arrives at the hospital, he is made to take a physical that Dr. Zernerke has ordered. After the tests, Cass finds out the real reason for his being there, Isabel has delivered a healthy baby and it's going to be given for adoption! Cass takes an instant attachment to the baby girl and takes her away to his hotel. Eventually Isabel traces him and they are reunited, much to the consternation of the Drurys and the would be in-laws, the Ferris.Although Mr. Cooper and Ms. Wright are more than perfect in their roles, some of the joy we found in the movie was watching superior performances by Frank Morgan, Jill Esmond and Patricia Collinge, who as Mrs. Drury, is marvelous. Mary Treen and Emory Parnell play the maid and the bellhop that help Cass take care of the baby. Anita Louise appears as Madge Ferris."Casanova Brown" is a fun film, so tune in whenever it shows again.

krdement This movie starts out promisingly, with an early scene in which Frank Morgan advises against Gary Cooper's marriage to his daughter, Anita Louise. Frank Morgan, playing an unabashed gold-digger, loudly complains to Cooper about his perceived penury at the hands of his family - including his daughter, Anita Louise. I am a fan of all 3 actors. Frank Morgan is (to my mind) a Hollywood treasure, Cooper a legend, and Louise a very lovely, versatile and under-appreciated actress seldom seen in the leading role. I also have nothing against Teresa Wright, and while not blessed with great range, she usually delivers heart-warming performances.From a promising opening, the story slides downhill all the way to the end. I found nothing humorous about burning down the home of Cooper's would-be in-laws. The butler in such a fastidious, non-smoking household would never just blithely walk away, allowing Cooper to continue smoking, or alternatively he would certainly supply him with some means of disposing of his ill-timed cigarette. Moreover, nobody with any common sense would permit himself to be left holding a lit cigarette without asking for some means of disposing of it. And finally, nobody in his right mind crushes out a cigarette in a handkerchief and sticks it in his pocket! This whole sequence just made Cooper seem foolish and gauche. It is a poor contrivance - ill conceived and filmed in a way that induces ridicule not laughter. The forced medical examination of Cooper is equally contrived. Nobody lets himself undergo a complete medical examination without his being advised of its purpose or giving his consent! That Cooper did so is too removed from reality to be funny - it's absurd! Stealing babies from hospitals is a serious legal offense, and that, too, is nothing to laugh about. Finally, the scenes of Cooper's overly fastidious, neurotic attention to his baby's feeding and weight may have struck a nerve with a few people who have experienced anxiety over their own newborn babies. But to me they just seem tedious and slow. The wardrobe and prop departments went over the top in those scenes, while paradoxically, the script writer went to sleep.The lines are just not in the script to generate humor. They just miss on all cylinders. The laughs come not a mile-a-minute, but more like a light year-a-minute. The only time the movie has any energy or humor is when Frank Morgan is on camera.The scene that is totally wasted is when both of Cooper's love interests and their respective fathers are cooped up in the same hotel room together. There is probably a rich vein of humor somewhere in that mine, but none of it was extracted.In the end, one of the two very likable girls is going to get hurt. Predictably, it is the Anita Louise character, who gets jilted on her would-be-wedding night! While it is not on camera, that is her fate, and it is not particularly funny - even as a loose end. She hadn't done anything in this film to make me unsympathetic (unlike Gail Patrick, say, in My Favorite Wife). Consequently, I was expecting (perhaps "hoping" is a better word in the context of the film!) for Anita Louise to enjoy a happy ending, too. The fact that such a nice character is essentially wiped out at the movie's end really undermines the effect of the "happy ending" for Cooper and Wright.I kept waiting for something to happen, for the witty dialog so characteristic of movies of the era... And it never delivered. A good performance by Frank Morgan in a slightly different role is totally wasted here.