With unwarranted modesty, "Miss Spaulding" -- a colleague of mine at Golden Age of Hollywood -- has kindly consented to reposting of her take on this little known, multi-faceted, masterful screwball comedy by the inimitable Preston Sturges:
I hope you can forgive my lack of a professional explanation on this. ...I'll do my best. :-)You have, Miss Spaulding, thank you.
It's full of blunt, hateful and snappy wit, which I love. It's brisk, but not too fast paced.
I like how different it is to most comedies that are of a similar plot, it's more clever. Instead of a guy typically confronting his wife of her unfaithfulness, or even hiring somebody to follow his wife on the suspicion of her possibly having an affair, this guy relies solely on himself to handle the situation. While conducting his orchestra, and driven by extreme paranoia and jealousy, he comes up with three possible solutions to his problem: murder, forgiveness or even suicide. All three of which he day dreams. He rushes home after the symphony to carry out one of his solutions, but it doesn't work out, in fact, none of three possibilities go as planned. (Isn't that how it always goes?)
Like I said, it's different. Maybe I like it so much because I'm a day dreamer myself. The fact that he schemes up each solution while day dreaming is appealing to me I suppose.
I suggested this movie [to covert someone who avoids black and white classics] because I think a woman would probably find a little more enjoyment out of it, hence the fact that Rex Harrison's character is being driven out of his mind with paranoia and jealously over the woman he loves whom, he believes, is being unfaithful. It's sick, but I think us gals tend to get a kick out of such things. :-D
I really hope this helped.
