I had high hopes for this movie as it is a complete Preston Sturges production and I'm a big fan of the Hollywood wunderkind's work earlier in the decade, has a top cast and the synopsis read well too. Sadly, for me anyway, it wasn't to be as after an intriguing premise is set up in its first two thirds it falls away badly in the last third with an extended slapstick sequence involving Harrison alone with no dialogue set for some reason to an orchestral backdrop. I guess at that point, I realised that the director's previous film had been to coax silent film star Harold Lloyd out of retirement and that the physical comedy employed no doubt in the Lloyd film had carried lamely over to this one.
The film peaks with Harrison's three imagined demises for his (he thinks) errant wife and his good looking personal assistant, displaying with some candour a strain of black humour which must have seemed shocking in its day, but is then frittered away with Harrison's inept attempts to implement his plans and ends up happily ever after with a pat explanation for his obviously doting wife's seemingly suspicious behaviour.
Like I said it started brightly with Harrison rampaging all over the place as the blustery, overbearing genius orchestra conductor lording it over his wife, in-laws and entourage with recognisably sharp and fast dialogue but before the damp squib finale you've also become aware of miscasting issues such as the normally feisty Linda Darnell as the simpering wife, Rudy Vallee as the nerdish brother-in-law and Lionel Standen delivering an accent which only in his head might sound east European.
As I understand from his bio, it seems that at this stage in his career, the prodigious Sturges had just about burnt out and he never again reached his previous heights (a similar thing was happening at almost the same time to another great 30's and 40's director Frank Capra).
I'm still glad I watched it and it had great promise for a time, but sadly for this admirer, it rather petered out and then with its tagged-on happy ending, almost looked to me like a studio-compromise job.
The film peaks with Harrison's three imagined demises for his (he thinks) errant wife and his good looking personal assistant, displaying with some candour a strain of black humour which must have seemed shocking in its day, but is then frittered away with Harrison's inept attempts to implement his plans and ends up happily ever after with a pat explanation for his obviously doting wife's seemingly suspicious behaviour.
Like I said it started brightly with Harrison rampaging all over the place as the blustery, overbearing genius orchestra conductor lording it over his wife, in-laws and entourage with recognisably sharp and fast dialogue but before the damp squib finale you've also become aware of miscasting issues such as the normally feisty Linda Darnell as the simpering wife, Rudy Vallee as the nerdish brother-in-law and Lionel Standen delivering an accent which only in his head might sound east European.
As I understand from his bio, it seems that at this stage in his career, the prodigious Sturges had just about burnt out and he never again reached his previous heights (a similar thing was happening at almost the same time to another great 30's and 40's director Frank Capra).
I'm still glad I watched it and it had great promise for a time, but sadly for this admirer, it rather petered out and then with its tagged-on happy ending, almost looked to me like a studio-compromise job.