There’s something to be said for the screwball, crazy comedies of the 1940s. They can have all kinds of stuff dropped into a blender and spun out and somehow make a satisfying and funny movie out of whatever went in. Take The Man Who Came to Dinner. Based on a stage play, it has a plot that probably wouldn’t get made today in the age of more improv comedy and single premises being used to fuel all the jokes. This is a movie where a man moves into a factory owner’s house around Christmas and essentially refuses to leave.
It reminded me a bit of Arsenic and Old Lace, and that’s a compliment.
Acerbic radio personality–that really is the only way to describe what this man does–Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) is having dinner at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley (Grant Mitchell and Billie “Glinda the Good Witch” Burke). Ernest Stanley, owner of a ball bearing factory, seems to be the only man in town or anywhere else who isn’t a fan of Whiteside. But it’s December, Stanley’s front steps are a little slick, and Whiteside slips and falls while entering the house. He’s taken in and treated by the town doctor, but he insists he isn’t going anywhere while he heals up, taking over the household and making Mr. Stanley’s life miserable.
There is one person, however, who can more or less call Whiteside on his more egregious behavior: his personal assistant Maggie Cutler (Better Davis). Maggie, however, has fallen in love with local newspaperman and aspiring playwright Bert Jefferson (Richard Travis), and she’s looking to leave Whiteside to marry Bert. Whiteside, seeing a problem, summons glamorous Hollywood actress Loraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan) to tempt Bert away from Maggie. And if that doesn’t work, well, he can always get his friend Banjo (Jimmy Durante) to stop by.
This movie is kind of wild. Woolley’s Whiteside is the master of the epic put-down, and he only seems to be staying with the Stanleys for the express purpose of tormenting Mr. Stanley. He’s more or less charming everyone else, including the Stanley’s servants and adult children, advising both the son and daughter to follow their respective dreams. Considering daughter June wants to marry the union organizer at her father’s factory, well, let’s just say this movie has aged in interesting ways if that’s the thing that is a problem for Mr. Stanley, but we aren’t supposed to like him anyway, just watch in amusement while Whiteside takes collect calls from world leaders and brings his exotic pets to stay in the Stanley house.
That aging problem comes up the most with Durante’s Banjo. His character is some kind of screen comedian, but he enters the house and immediately starts kissing Whiteside’s stern nurse. That’s the sort of thing that might get a #MeToo charge leveled against Banjo, but it is something that was more common in movies back then. That said, this was a very clever and lively movie filled with a talented cast, and Whiteside’s manipulative ways isn’t foolproof as he can get himself into hot water if someone recognizes what he’s doing. I may not have been sure what kind of celebrity he was supposed to be aside from “generally famous,” but it was fun watching him get what he wanted while making a stuffy older man bang his head against the wall, sometimes literally. I should go looking for movies like this more often.
Grade: A-
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