Reviews

I agree with the other reviewers about this movie being lovely to look at, and Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall are indeed very funny, but I was astounded at what the 17 year old Sandra Dee got up to! Drinking sherry (sherry?! was that the usual cafe drink for teenagers then?) like she'd been doing it all her life, staying out until 5 in the morning, smoking, and at the end of it all deciding to marry a guy she'd only seen a couple of times! And ridiculously, her father (Harrison) is totally nonchallant about it all.

I know that in a lot of these old movies people got married after only knowing each other a couple of days or weeks, but a 17 year old? It beggars belief, and became annoying. What was the point of making the daughter a teenager if everone was going to behave as if she was 30?

A somewhat funny movie, but Sandra Dee is obnoxious rather than endearing, in my opinion

As the other reviewer says, the bizarre and confusing beginning to this film almost put me off sticking with it: I couldn't figure out what was going on when the narrator talked both to the modern girl passing by in Budapest and the older woman who used to be his neighbor, and action in the story was stopped while he pointed out details in Nazi costume, etc. This merging of the past and present, and actors playing themselves playing an historical character (!) added nothing to the film except confusion.

Once this nonsense is over, however, things proceed in a regular fashion as the narrator's mother is arrested while walking the street, herded onto a train bound for Auschwitz, and then successfully confronts the Nazi commander and is allowed to return home.

Now I love Pauline Collins, and she is a fine actress, but I felt she was miscast here, maybe she is just too much of an English icon for me to believe her as a Jewish Hungarian. And sorry, but what "courage" did she exhibit? She meekly went along with the other deportees even though she had a "Red Cross Exemption", didn't offer the thirsty girl one of the plums in her purse (that bugged me!), and only spoke to the Nazi officer because her neighbor dragged her bodily across the floor and shoved her out the door in front of him. If the neighbor hadn't done that she would have got on the train with the others without a word. And why didn't she mention the girl who had been captured by mistake? She returned home seemingly without a thought for those left behind. I realize that we are viewing the film with hindsight as to what fate awaited the deportees, which Elsa didn't have and that as far as she was aware the others were just being sent off to another country, and perhaps in the book there is some mention of her feelings about the others she left behind, but in the film she comes across as meek, somewhat selfish, and driven more by naiveté than courage when confronting the officer.

This film left me with the thought "Is that it?"

I watched this movie last night, as it was a "classic" I had put off seeing for many years. I always had the idea it was a comedy, but after and hour and a half I was getting beaten down by the continuous disasters and disappointments incurred on the characters: illness, bankruptcy, infidelity, blackmail, loss of a career, it just went on and on. Yes, there were comic moments, and I agree that Marie Dressler was marvelous in both her comic and dramatic scenes, but by the time Barrymore was preparing to kill himself I could stand no more. And when we finally get to the dinner, which the entire first half of the movie seemed to be setting up for, nothing happens! (including the dinner itself)! After spending so much time laying out and intertwining the stories of these characters, they only actually meet each other for 10 minutes at the end of the movie, during which nothing really happens. I expected them to all sit down to dinner, during which the sparks would fly and all the problems would come to a head, instead everything is pretty much resolved in individual scenes before they even arrive for the dinner.

A disappointing and depressing movie, with just a few great moments.

I can't say I enjoyed this movie. I fast-forwarded through all of the songs as I found them dull, uninspired, and repetitive. Not Loesser's best, and no way near as good as those in Guys and Dolls. I found Robert Morse interesting to watch, although I kept hoping right up to the end that he would somehow get his comeuppance and be knocked back down to window washer! Although his tricks were fascinating, he was rather obnoxious and unpleasant in how he used people and didn't care who he crushed on his way to the top (yes, I know it is satire, but he still was irritating!).

I did find that things picked up near the end, but the ending itself didn't make sense to me. Why was it suddenly forgotten that Ponty had caused 6 offices to be wrecked and the company to lose money? Why did Michelle Lee suddenly forget that she was disgusted with Ponty for stealing Bud's idea and become his fiancée again? The art direction and colours were fabulous though, and I really enjoyed the sets and those enormous offices!

I really enjoyed this movie, and laughed aloud several times. The father was for the most part lovable, in spite of his stubbornness and temper, and the 3 daughters were lovely, as was the Scottish policeman! I just couldn't understand the father's prejudice against the Scotsman as a suitor of his daughter: I mean, he had a good job, was kind and helpful, and steady. I guess it can only be explained by his stubbornness and the belief that the Scotsman in some way was responsible for his forced retirement. But this attitude seemed to be carried to a too harsh extreme when he disowned his daughter after she married the Scot, although he came round in the end.

There were a couple of bothersome things for me: I found both of the policemen helping themselves to the Italian vendor's fruit without paying to be out-of-character. I really couldn't believe that the upright Scotsman would basically steal like that. And the general disappointment and grandfather's anger when the grandchild was announced to be a girl was again a bit hard to take in this day and age.

But the election scenes were a real hoot, especially when the father is trying to dissuade people from voting for him! And Alan Hale Sr. is as always extremely watchable.

I agree with most of the other comments: dull songs and a somewhat boring movie. I loved Fanny Brice as the Russian maid though: after watching her first scene I wondered "Who is that?" and looked it up. I had only heard of her through the movie "Funny Girl" (which I didn't like and couldn't sit through). The Baby Snooks number was awful, a total embarrassment: imagine a 46 year old woman dressed up like a toddler and speaking baby-talk! I'm surprised no one else has mentioned the jaw-dropping scene where Judy appears in black-face, her hair sticking up in cornrows all over her head, and sings a bouncy down-South number with all the usual racist stereotypical mannerisms of the time. Quite startling to see!