lasttimeisaw A post-WWII Howard Hawks screwball comedy transpires in the Allied-occupied Germany, Cary Grant plays a French Army Captain Henri Rochard, who is teamed up with American Lieutenant Catherine Gates (Sheridan) in his last mission before bowing out of military service once and for all. It starts as a typical ill-matched pair reluctantly bundled together (even sharing the same bed one evening), who are constantly at each other's throats through comedy of errors, more often than not, at Henry's expense, but, improbable to audience, a budding romantic is bound to emerge from both sides and by the end of their task, they are going to tie the knot. Honestly, the first half is very pleasurable with Grant adopts his tried-and-tested winning formula to juggle goofy, loosey-goosey innocuousness with snit-driven prolixity, meanwhile a proactive Ann Sheridan pulls no punch to prove that as a woman, her Catherine is no lesser to any masculine peer of hers, she can operate a spanking vehicle as competent as fast-tracking their mission. In truth, it is this conformity-defying, role-swapping gender politics that gingers up the film right out of the box, however, in the second half, when the narrative is mired in overwrought red tapes, only to put the newly weds in the quagmire of a repeatedly deferred marriage consummation, and laboriously plays up the same source of amusement that Henri must apply as a war bride in order to be emigrated to USA as Catherine's spouse, the film's allure starts to pall, and its objectionable ethnocentric overtone doesn't help either. When the plot reaches that mane-clipping, nurse-impersonating climax, it only leaves a first-time viewer gobsmacked, not by the plan's wits but the whole idiocy which Hawks condones, maxing out Cary Grant's belabored discomfiture but largely relegating Ann Sheridan on the sideline, an utter betrayal to its promising premise. Another Golden Age Hollywood crowd-pleaser doesn't come through the test of time, as at one point Henri jests that woman is, au contraire, not the weaker gender to man since they are blessed with more sleep, the joke is in fact on the film and Hawks himself, a blatant tokenism in addressing gender equality, but cranked out inside a masculine hothouse, it is the same old blarney that now borders on offense.

mark.waltz If good intentions are the pathway to hell, then Ann Sheridan's American officer is a red hot mama. Poor Cary Grant is the sap stuck with her on his last mission where both intentionally and unintentionally, he ends up being raised on a train gate, almost goes over a waterfall, gets arrested for being inside a black market, and is driven through a haystack. And that's just in the first half of this film, and not even an inclusive list of his indignities. Rather than tell her, "Get away from me, You're bad luck!", he marries her, then as civilian newly separated from the French (!) army, he must go through American red tape to get to the United States to be with her. You see, there's no American bill for the husbands of female Army Officers, only wives. So like any devoted French husband, he must make one last humiliating appearance, and Bridget Bardot he ain't.With farcial elements in post war Germany, this foreign affair isn't a match made in heaven. Grant and Sheridan are extremely funny, and in spite of some obnoxious antics, Sheridan is still quite likable in spite of those obvious manipulations and light-hearted schemes against Grant. Most post-war stories in Europe had either film noir or new wave elements, but this has neither, only comedy. Poor Grant suffers more indignities than Margaret Dumont in six Marxx Brothers movies. In Grant's last job for the French Army, he is ironically searching for information on the black market through someone named Schindler, an ironic choice of names considering the name of the famous German who arranged for Jewish employees of his factory to avoid extermination. The scene where Sheridan tries to introduce Grant to Schindler is similar to a scene between Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy in "His Girl Friday", which was ironically also directed by Howard Hawks, the same director her. Grant's comic genius comes out in a scene where as a male war bride, he reacts to an female American officer's reciting of the latest American female fashions while surrounded by actual female war brides.

secondtake I Was a Male War Bride (1949)Howard Hawks directing Cary Grant in a farce of a post-war comedy. It's hilarious at times, and always engaging as you'd expect. But then, you might also expect something even further over the top, which might have made this a classic rather than just a really funny fun film.A reminder--this is the pairing that gave us "Bringing Up Baby" and "His Girl Friday," two of the funniest movies ever. Even "Monkey Business," three years later, had more zaniness to it, though clearly in third place among the four. "I Was a Male War Bride" is the up side to the film noir version of the American soldier in the late 1940s, and it plays into a lot of jokes that were probably hilarious at the time--like the absurd acronyms the military used and uses--but in 2011 it's the larger romance and brief cross-dressing that are the hooks.If the other three Hawks-Grant comedies have the likes of Katherine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe to give them longevity (and writers like Ben Hecht chipping in on that score), this one has the lesser known Ann Sheridan. As friendly, likable and every-day as she is meant to be (a little like Ginger Rogers in "Monkey Business"), she never quite lights up the screen. Or more importantly, lights up Cary Grant. Don't worry, there are really funny parts--the motorcycle scenes in general, including on the boat--so watch this, definitely. Grant might not be his quirky or even romantic best, but he's still Cary Grant. And the writing is fun, the pace always fast. And then, when you're done, you'll want to remember the others in this group. And to round it out, you might discover the fifth collaboration--not a comedy--the moving and very well made "Only Angels Have Wings." Great stuff all around.

DKosty123 This screwball comedy is not one of Howard Hawks best films but it is still very watchable. Grant is the focus of the film and carries it pretty much alone as much as his carrying hidden stuff in his suitcase.While Grant did a lot of Comedy films of this nature, this one is the one where he is the center of this film. There are others where Grant is good too but since he is the center of this movie, it is his personal best.The sexual tension presented in this film is very much the type of tension that existed in the late 1940's but has changed much since then. Still this film is very good and runs on TCM on occasion.