The movie was not good. In fact it was a major suck fest. The faces that kid made were creepy.
shareNo, you did not like the movie. Doesn't mean it's not good.
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This is the story of a man who could not...make up...his mind.
Terribly written and acted. Way too drawn out. Why the long baby washing scene, the school play, etc.? Just plain boring. Smacks of a movie written by comittee. Why the red herrings, such as the repeated "till death do us part", and "she's like no other child".
Edgar Buchanan is the best actor in the movie. The others are cardboard.
A very bad movie.
Let me guess: either you don't have kids or you are not married or you aren't in love....either way you cannot connect with this movie so you write it off as badly done. Why the long baby washing scene? Have you ever washed a baby. It can be quite daunting, especially the first time, they seem so fragile (not to mention slippery). That scene was just to show her being suddenly thrown into the role of a new mother. And seriously, aren't red herrings present in real life (if you look hard enough) too. They just want to draw you into the drama of the movie without giving too much away.
I can't possibly agree with the opinion of the other actors being likened to cardboard but I can agree that Edgard Buchanan is great in this movie.
Once again, we exercise the freedom to share our own opinions. (I found this movie on PBS one night when I was waiting to watch Seinfeld reruns at 11pm. I was unable to tear myself away from the film except to grab snacks from the fridge, and naturally I forgot all about the reruns until the closing credits and I saw it was midnight.) I found this movie an emotional roller-coaster ride, as I couldnt decide whether this was a movie about grifters latching onto a baby, or simply a young couple searching for the family life. I almost cried. It's so easy for a movie to have diverse effects on different viewers. (Makes you wonder why anyone listens to critics without making up their own mind.) I will watch it again when it's on. It's a great date film, and I'm a bachelor, but then...what do I know?
--"Tip-Top the Clown"
For anyone with kids, where Cary Grant goes to court to plead to keep the baby is so moving !! But even more touching is when he comes home and slowly comes up the stairs...tears and more tears !! Love it.
shareI don't understand how anybody cannot like this film, it's a bit sad but so moving it's on my top ten christmas movies.
shareThe initial comment was put rather rudely, I'd say but I agree in that the movie did not impress me. At the risk of being hated, I gotta say I didn't cry during this movie. I'm fairly critical with films, and found this one to be sloppily directed. Someone else on the comments board said the movie was "greatly flawed" and I have to agree. For the most part the direction, in trying to be simple and understated, was too plain and came off as lazy. Most of the storylines seemed irrelevant, overdone and later unexplained. Frankly, I found the whole thing too melodramatic, it would work well as a novel but on film it seemed too much. The daughter's death was one of the more interesting parts, but wasn't really explained and I didn't much care for the quick ending. That being said, I can understand why people would take to the film because Irene Dunne performed beautifully, Cary Grant was tops in this and every minor player was impressive. I'd call it a flawed film with promise. I saw all the praise for the film and thought I'd voice another impression. :)
sharefollowingfleet... Though I still love the film and always will...at least your comment had some knowledge behind it...Better than summing it up as a "major suck fest". I do agree with the film being poorly made. I believe the real reason that I love this film (and I am sure is the a factor for a lot of people with their favorite movie choices) is simply that I watched it when I was young. I, too, am critical with movies that I watch now....but with movies from my childhood...I will always turn a blind eye to imperfections. Thanks for an intelligent criticism.
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I agree. I disliked this movie because I found it to be sloppily sentimental, which I do not enjoy, and feel Grant and Dunne were better served by material such as "The Awful Truth." The OP's "suckfest" comment more properly belongs on an "American Pie" message board or some such. While sentimental old movies are not everyone's cup of tea, I do sometimes enjoy them but feel that Grant and Dunne were "un-Dunne" by the melodrama of this one. I think both are more suited to comedy, truth be told. The reminscences while looking at records felt trite. The performances were fine, especially Edgar Buchanan, which my husband recofnized from Green Acres, of all things. I believe Cary Grant said Irene Dunne was his favorite leading lady, but I have to agree that she appears a bit old for him in this film. Perhaps it's the lack of humor. The hurried ending felt forced, as did Bondi stepping in with the "child like no other" to save a marriage at the eleventh hour. All told, not a bad movie but a weak one.
Nora Charles: What's that man doing in my drawers?share
I loved the technique of using the music to bookend the stories. I often feel that my life has a 'soundtrack' - so much can be identified by the music we preferred at the time. There are many songs that bring back a specific memory or specific people, or just a period of my life.
shareMost of the storylines seemed irrelevant, overdone and later unexplained. Frankly, I found the whole thing too melodramatic, it would work well as a novel but on film it seemed too much.
"Most of the storylines seemed irrelevant, overdone and later unexplained. Frankly, I found the whole thing too melodramatic"
Sort of like real life, huh?
This scene really spoke to me. One of my children was adopted overseas. We were a military family and it was a 'local adoption' in that we adopted where we were at the time. Had we been in the US, that is where we would have adopted (as we did with our other child). We had to go to a court before the finalization. It was absolutely nerve wracking. I had expected a 'court room scene' as we see in the movie or on TV, so asked a friend to accompany us for moral support. We were in a conference room, the judge on one side, the translator on one end and our Social Worker, lawyer, friend, our son and us on the other side. The judge asked a number of procedural questions (names, citizenship, etc.) then asked the Social Worker some other questions. Then he asked us questions, such as any concerns we might have, how we felt about the fact that he didn't look like us, and if we loved him. He even asked our friend about our relationship with our son - because we had brought her, he felt she was fair game. She was MUCH better spoken than we were at the moment - we were SO nervous, and a little scared. It would have ripped my heart out of my body had we lost him. When the judge was asking me questions, my six month old son, on my lap threw his keys across the table at the judge. I have always thought it was his way of saying 'stop this nonsense and sign the papers!'
shareSure is easy to spot people who haven't raised kids.
"When people run in circles its a very very - Mad World"
I couldn't agree more with pery-1!!!
shareFilm appreciation implies some level of awareness of the time and place in which a film was made and exhibited as well as some curiosity about the social imperatives that then existed.
"I didn't like it!" is a film criticism in the same way that "I've gotta take a leak!" is beer criticism.
I would not call it bad, but I was disappointed in it. I read some really good reviews about it and yet when I watched it, I was not that impressed. Maybe my expectations were too high. Certainly not on my lists of classics.
Suckfest is one word.
shareI too didn’t like the film, Cary Grant + Irene Dunne = zero chemistry
I got bored halfway through because I didn’t buy their love and she was visibly old enough to look like his mother. I’m all for Melodrama but this film just didn’t work.
No chemistry? He stared at her chest almost the whole film. He obviously saw something there.
shareAgreed. I think they had great chemistry, in fact in all three of the movies they made together. Now as for the original posting that this is not a good movie, I enjoyed it a lot, up until the last scene. Their child has died and their grief has pushed them apart to the point of divorce, until they get a call from the adoption agency that there's another kid waiting for them, and then suddenly they're all happy again. WTF??!! I found this almost distasteful because with that one phonecall, they appeared to completely forget about their dead daughter, as if it wasn't losing their little girl that grieved them, but not having a child in general, and now that they were offered another one, life was great again. That really bugged me and has somewhat tainted my overall enjoyment of the film.
shareIt's weird. I found the direction, as others have mentioned, to be sloppy. The story was, again, as others have mentioned, clearly written in committee. Come on, an earthquake in Japan just after the discussion about leaving? On the other hand, the 2 leads are interesting enough to watch that something does work overall. They are fun, and that's entertainment. Some of the supporting characters are decent performances as well. The little girl grinning after each line is creepy. It seems to me that for each plus, there is a check in the negative category as well. For example, I like the record motif, but then the tracks selected after the charmer intro are kind of lame - especially the classical piece (Dvorak?). Applejack is a good character, but those guys with the nuts? How long does that need to go on? Everything had potential, but is, in the end, a bit off.
shareWhy is everyone picking the movie to death? You're looking too deeply, analyzing every move, which seems unecessary because you cannot compare life in the 30's and 40's to today. For the day, the movie is perfect.
Cary Grant is wonderful as a new dad who didn't know he even wanted to be a dad until Trina came along. Irene Dunne is lovely as a new wife and mom who is uncertain about the future but takes each day as it comes and copes (as we all do when our time comes) the best she can.
The movie is sentimental, it's supposed to be sentimental. If the movie were made today it wouldn't have the same feel because today we are a jaded society and have been over-exposed to too much on a grand scale thinking a movie isn't a movie if it isnt a blockbuster. Sometimes simple is good, sometimes it works. Here, it works.
I say, if you're in the mood for a good tear jeaker, this is it. If you're looking for more this is not it. Oh, and by all accounts I guess this could be labled a 'chic flick' but anyone with a heart will get it and understand it and not pick it apart, imo.
Sorry, that just isn't true. First of all, the post-WWI crowd was "The Lost Generation" and gave us Modernism itself, which is far more jaded and cynical than anything out there in bubble gum land today. So movies of the 30s and 40s weren't always 'sentimental', any more than they 'aren't' today.
I agree with you on the leads and said so myself in the post.
It's supposed to be sentimental, and this is done well sometimes and poorly in other cases. Here, the main story and their relationship works but the movie itself doesn't, as I wrote. I wrote that I thought like others that the story was cobbled together in committee. At any rate, it's far from 'simple', as you say - they go to Japan and have an earthquake, for god's sake, before returning home. I think that's 'over-exposed to too much on a grand scale'.
You suggest we don't like movies unless they are blockbusters. I don't think I've ever gave a shat whether a movie sold any other ticket than the one I bought, so that is pretty irrelevant to my judgments.
In the words of Descartes, I type, therefore I am, therefore I have a beating heart, yet I still pick apart this doofus romp of a fumble flick that wasn't saved by the charming leads. Go figure. For a great tear jerker, may I suggest The Fox and the Hound?
I completely agree with titus25. This film has was excellent in some parts and the lovely Cary Grant is always a bonus. But at the end, I just sat there thinking "What????" As if a phone call saying "By the way, the 2 year old boy you ordered 6 years ago has just arrived" could really pull you out of the grief of losing a beloved daughter or plug a rocky marriage.
Yep, spoilt the film for me too.
Re: Titus25
I couldn't agree with you more. I loved the whole movie until the very ending, and I think you put it perfectly that it seemed like they were more upset about being childless than losing their daughter in the last minute of the movie. I can understand that they'd be excited about being parents again, but, as you mentioned, one minute they're talking about how they felt guilty for scolding their daughter or being too busy to take her to the movies right before her sudden death, and then the next minute (after the call) they're excitedly discussing putting the crib back up and such. I appreciate that everyone has their own unique grief process but that quick change in behavior seemed a little inappropriate, and makes me think that the script writers just wanted to quickly tie everything up to get the movie over with. Given the content and affectivity of the movie, they should have taken a few minutes to maybe reconcile the marriage before the phone call (like "now we're communicating again, let's stay together") and then something about "a new child will never replace our daughter but yay we're going to be parents again."
It's hard to say how you'd react in their situation unless you have experienced it yourself. Especially the death of a child, which (from what I've read) is the ultimate pain.
I'd like to know what someone who has experienced that loss thinks about their reaction.
they lost one baby(the miscarriage) and then found love with the little girl, then lost her and they thought they, and their marriage was doomed, not meant to be. The third child was not how other posters have characterized, but a new chance, a sign that they did have a future and someone to give all this unrequited love to. When you have been buffeted about by fate, you will grab for any sliver of hope. I see them in the future with 3 or 4 kids and a long happy marriage. My favorite Cary Grant movie.
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