like the zany madcap film Merrily We Live, "Dulcy" is a week in the life of a trusting, upperclass family with too much money and not enough hobbies. When they meet up with strangers, they blindly invite them into their lives and into their house. Although mostly scrubbed clean for the production code, their ARE some ethnic jokes and slurs which were prevalent at the time. Billie Burke (best known as Glenda the Good Witch) was also in Merrily We Live, which also had a clever, fast-moving script. Beautiful outdoor photography of Lake Arrowhead, California, back in its hayday. The best part of this film is Reginald Gardiner, who plays one of the "Schuyler van Dykes" (really).... two years later Gardiner will play the hilarious Beverly Carlton in "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Viewers will also recognize Dad Forbes (Roland Young) from Topper and Philadelphia Story. The film goes in all directions and moves right along... fun flick as long as you don't look too closely at the plot.
11 Reviews
nice performance by Ann Sothern
blanche-214 October 2018
Ann Sothern is delightful as "Dulcy," a scatterbrained young woman who makes life miserable for weekend guests. The film stars Dan Dailey, Reginald Gardner, Roland Young, Ian Hunter, and Billie Burke.
After meeting an inventor who can't get a meeting with an airline executive, Dulcy decides to help. She has him come to her house when her brother (Dailey), his fiance, and her parents (Young, a major airline executive and Burke) are coming for the weekend. Chaos prevails on every level.
Fun movie with good performances by everyone, particularly an exasperated Roland Young. A perfect vehicle for Sothern.
After meeting an inventor who can't get a meeting with an airline executive, Dulcy decides to help. She has him come to her house when her brother (Dailey), his fiance, and her parents (Young, a major airline executive and Burke) are coming for the weekend. Chaos prevails on every level.
Fun movie with good performances by everyone, particularly an exasperated Roland Young. A perfect vehicle for Sothern.
Dulcy's the type of woman who starts a fire and forgets to use the fireplace.
mark.waltz21 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
She's also the type of wealthy woman whose antics cause the servants to quit, fish to move to the lower depths of the lake when she goes sailing, pedestrians to turn around and walk the other way when they see her coming and business men think of jumping out the window even though there's been no market crash. Accident prone is one thing, but taking others down with you isn't the way most people want to go. The talents of Ann Sothern are used for this wacky screwball comedy that rivals Carole Lombard in "My Man Godfrey", Katharine Hepburn in "Bring Up Baby" and Constance Bennett in "Merrilly We Live" for dizzy heiresses unknowingly causing destruction. The writers go overboard with her antics, but Sothern makes her character completely amusing.
Among her victims are brother Dan Dailey (getting a cold shower when she blows up the boiler), pilot Reginald Gardiner, butler Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, fiancee Ian Hunter and wealthy couple Roland Young and Billie Burke. Hunter is an inventor trying to get through a relaxing vacation, and it is lucky that he doesn't die of pneumonia because of her antics in getting him across the lake. Sothern's attempts at rescuing those who are victims of her accidental antics usually result in them nearly drowning or ending up conked on the head by something or nearly falling over a balcony. This is a wild and wacky minor comedy meant to take "Maisie" into a new direction, and Sothern is worth her weight in gold. The veteran supporting cast does their best to match her, but her energy is matchless. This isn't one of the better screwball comedies, but there's a lot still to enjoy.
Among her victims are brother Dan Dailey (getting a cold shower when she blows up the boiler), pilot Reginald Gardiner, butler Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, fiancee Ian Hunter and wealthy couple Roland Young and Billie Burke. Hunter is an inventor trying to get through a relaxing vacation, and it is lucky that he doesn't die of pneumonia because of her antics in getting him across the lake. Sothern's attempts at rescuing those who are victims of her accidental antics usually result in them nearly drowning or ending up conked on the head by something or nearly falling over a balcony. This is a wild and wacky minor comedy meant to take "Maisie" into a new direction, and Sothern is worth her weight in gold. The veteran supporting cast does their best to match her, but her energy is matchless. This isn't one of the better screwball comedies, but there's a lot still to enjoy.
Not as good as it should have been with such a good cast
richard-178716 May 2021
This movie has a great cast of comedians, but even they can't bring much life to a dead script.
Why the script is so dead is the real mystery here. It is based on a Broadway success by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. But if you compare the two works, you see that this movie script was radically altered from the original play.
What we are left with is a lot of slapstick sight-gags, some of which are funny, some not, and a lot of really hairbrained events. No one comes of as even vaguely real.
So, in the end, a fine cast that could have done great things is left high and dry - unlike the characters, who often end up all wet.
Why the script is so dead is the real mystery here. It is based on a Broadway success by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. But if you compare the two works, you see that this movie script was radically altered from the original play.
What we are left with is a lot of slapstick sight-gags, some of which are funny, some not, and a lot of really hairbrained events. No one comes of as even vaguely real.
So, in the end, a fine cast that could have done great things is left high and dry - unlike the characters, who often end up all wet.
Turning Lemons Into Lemonade
boblipton22 September 2023
Ann Sothern is a charming young woman without a brain in her head. Her brother, Dan Dailey, is in love with the daughter of Roland Young. Her boy friend, Ian Hunter, has invented a motor that he wishes to sell to Young. And Reginald Gardiner is a lunatic who drops in when he crashes his plane in the lake.
Nominally based on the Kaufman-Connelly play and the two earlier screen versions (Constance Talmadge in 1923, and Marion Davies in 1930), this version is far too complicated and predictable to suit my taste, even as it clearly shows the workings for the plot calmly advancing beneath its frantic exterior. It's one of the movies made when comedies were not permitted to be about anything real, so they were fast instead, hoping to slip one past the audience -- a Screwball Manqué if you will, in which every situation, every gag, is just what you expect it to be in the set-up. We go into a comedy knowing things will turn out well in the end, Jack shall have Jill, and man his mare. What we hope for are a few surprises on the route there.
This script provides none. Even so, I enjoy the movie a lot, and the reason is the way director S. Sylvan Simon directs his fine cast of comics (Gardiner always excepted), and throws in Billie Burke and Jonathan Hale along the way, and they raise smiles just by their performances. Which is the mark of professionals, able to make something out of nothing.
Nominally based on the Kaufman-Connelly play and the two earlier screen versions (Constance Talmadge in 1923, and Marion Davies in 1930), this version is far too complicated and predictable to suit my taste, even as it clearly shows the workings for the plot calmly advancing beneath its frantic exterior. It's one of the movies made when comedies were not permitted to be about anything real, so they were fast instead, hoping to slip one past the audience -- a Screwball Manqué if you will, in which every situation, every gag, is just what you expect it to be in the set-up. We go into a comedy knowing things will turn out well in the end, Jack shall have Jill, and man his mare. What we hope for are a few surprises on the route there.
This script provides none. Even so, I enjoy the movie a lot, and the reason is the way director S. Sylvan Simon directs his fine cast of comics (Gardiner always excepted), and throws in Billie Burke and Jonathan Hale along the way, and they raise smiles just by their performances. Which is the mark of professionals, able to make something out of nothing.
Kooky and fun or obnoxious and overdone?
planktonrules27 May 2017
Bill Ward (Dan Dailey) is in love and wants to marry a lovely lady. So, he invites her and her parents to his lakefront mansion for the weekend. During most of this time, Bill's sister, Dulcy (Ann Sothern) keeps doing things to hurt the girl's father...along with a variety of other people who happen to get in her way.
In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made quite a few movies with kooky female leads. Usually they were played by Billie Burke or Gracie Allen or even Katharine Hepburn ("Bringing Up Baby") but "Dulcy" stars Ann Sothern...and whether or not you like the movie will depend a lot on if you like a leading lady THIS stupid, obnoxious AND selfish. Time and again, Dulcy hurts people because she is an idiot that just doesn't give a crap about them or her actions. One person's kooky is another person's vicious sociopath...and I found Dulcy to fall in that latter category and so I found the film tedious and horribly unfunny.
In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made quite a few movies with kooky female leads. Usually they were played by Billie Burke or Gracie Allen or even Katharine Hepburn ("Bringing Up Baby") but "Dulcy" stars Ann Sothern...and whether or not you like the movie will depend a lot on if you like a leading lady THIS stupid, obnoxious AND selfish. Time and again, Dulcy hurts people because she is an idiot that just doesn't give a crap about them or her actions. One person's kooky is another person's vicious sociopath...and I found Dulcy to fall in that latter category and so I found the film tedious and horribly unfunny.
That Madcap Dulcy
jjnxn-126 March 2015
Later entry in the madcap comedy sweepstakes is paper thin but buoyed by the charming Ann Sothern. Wedged in between two Maisie pictures she gets to be a bit more addled than that resourceful gal ever was. She "fixs" things that work fine breaking them in the process and generally glides through the picture creating havoc in her wake while remaining completely unscathed.
As with most MGM movies of the era she is surrounded by an amazing cast of some of the best character actors/actresses working at the time. Billie Burke is delightfully dizzy almost matching Sothern's daffiness but the real standout besides Ann is Roland Young as the target of her unintentional "good deeds".
Inventive and illuminating it is not but thanks to the charming performances of the cast led by Ann this little known picture is worth checking out.
As with most MGM movies of the era she is surrounded by an amazing cast of some of the best character actors/actresses working at the time. Billie Burke is delightfully dizzy almost matching Sothern's daffiness but the real standout besides Ann is Roland Young as the target of her unintentional "good deeds".
Inventive and illuminating it is not but thanks to the charming performances of the cast led by Ann this little known picture is worth checking out.
Loud, tedious and unfunny ....
brooklynjm8 March 2019
... despite the presence of some wonderful actors.
One is hard-pressed to understand why any of these contortions would ever be considered amusing.
The production values are high, but the endless succession of predictable sight gags and cruel mishaps descend into near-gibberish.
Ann Sothern looks lovely, but embarrassed. Even Roland Young, for me one of the most most dependably skilled comic actors ever, just plows ahead dutifully until the whole thing grinds to a halt.
Hysterically funny. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.
rlymzv12 December 2021
Ann Sothern is terrific as "Dulcy". Ann Sothern is a delight to most men, and she's very funny in this movie. Shocking there is no official studio release. I'm happy to have this terrific film in my 3000 DVD/Blu-ray collection where I know it can never be censored.
Loses something over the years
Jim Tritten19 March 2005
This is at least the third time that the stage play "Dulcy" by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly was made by MGM into a film. A silent featuring Constance Talmadge appeared in 1923. Version No. 2 appears under the title "Not So Dumb" in 1930 and features Marion Davies (directed by King Vidor). A CD version is available featuring Zazu Pitts in a 1935 radio broadcast and you can pull down off the internet a 1937 radio version with Gracie Allen. Dulcy must have been a real hit on the stage and I would expect that the Gracie Allen version was a hoot. I just did not think this was a slap on the leg comedy that aged well for viewers the 21st Century. The story's premise is that a scatterbrained young woman tries to turn a weekend social event into a business opportunity for her fiancé. Ann Sothern is a good actress but the material just does not seem quite as funny as it obviously must have decades ago. There are clever written gags and lots of physical comedy. The material has the actresses in the lead playing as if they were actually dumb - not just clever and using being dumb as a technique to get their way. Today we no longer find funny folks who are not that bright and who seem to glide through life oblivious to their situation. All ends well, despite Dulcy's efforts, and perhaps some of you will find this a pleasant diversion. Recommended for social scientists and anthropologists attempting to research what was funny to us when.
Woeful attempt at a screwball comedy
malcolmgsw20 May 2021
This film came at the end of the genre. The script is mirthless,and as a result the actors struggle manfully with their parts. Sotherns part is of a thoroughly obnoxious woman's whose antics border on the insane. She gabbles her part leading to the assumption that she wants to get to the end as soon as possible.
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