bombersflyup
Casanova Brown is an extremely dated and unfunny comedy with a great cast.Sam Wood like this film, directed "The Pride of the Yankees" with these two great leads which I love and I'm completely shocked this collaboration produced such nothingness. Much like "Bringing Up Baby" with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, but that had plenty more going for it than this. It isn't just dated though, it is not of this world, no base point with which to stand. The scene where Cass goes to the Maternity Hospital started out funny, him just doing what he is told without asking what is going on or getting up, like there is a mix-up as he just said I'm Brown, but then it is just a medical examination and that was suppose to happen.
SimonJack
The vast number of good comedy movies made over the years are single theme films. That is, the comedy is the focal point of the film, around which it plays itself out. It stands alone, regardless of the plot. Examples of this are "Harvey," "Kind Hearts and Coronets," "Arsenic and Old Lace." In the case of comedy romances, the romances are usually a big part of the comedy. Examples are, "His Girl Friday," "It Happened One Night," and "The Importance of Being Earnest."But, there are occasional comedies that have a second theme distinct and recognizable from the main humor dialogue. These are most often distinct plots around and through which the comedy is interwoven. One such group is the comedy adventure. Some very entertaining comedy adventures include "Around the World in 80 Days," "The Great Race," and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines". "Casanova Brown," is in another group of two-theme films that includes some very great movies. These are the films that have themes with a message or that support strong values. The second theme is the basis for the comedy being developed. The comedy is built around the value theme, even if the latter is hidden for some time in the film. Very good examples of this are "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "My Man Godfry."What is the second theme, or building theme of "Casanova Brown?" It's sentiment that revolves around families and love of children – especially a father's love for his baby. That's the whole plot of this move, and it drives the humor after the opening scenes. This isn't among the best of such films, but it is a very good one. "Casanova" is a very good, entertaining film, with overall good acting and directing. Top notch performances are given by Gary Cooper, Frank Morgan, Edmund Breon, Mary Treen, and Emory Parnell. The film has three hilarious scenes. The first involves a cigarette that burns down a house. The second is Cooper's physical exam when he goes to meet a doctor at a maternity hospital. The third is Cooper and his helpers caring for the baby in the hotel room. The most hilarious lines of dialogue occur in a few exchanges. Morgan asks Cooper about the girl he had met and married. "What was she like?" he asked. "Have you ever seen the sun come up at dawn?" Cooper replies. Morgan answers, "I have. It nauseated me."In another scene, Cooper has an exchange with the hotel clerk about goat's milk. The clerk says, "Why don't you get yourself some goldfish? No trouble at all, and they die over night."In the hotel room, Cooper talks about reducing the formula to slow down the baby's weight gain. The bell captain, Parnell, says, "Why don't you put a little gin in it?" Cooper replies, "Gin?" Parnell says "Well, that's the way they say they make jockeys – put a little gin in their Wheaties."In the hotel lobby, a group of people are standing and waiting for the elevator, including the character played by Breon. Morgan walks in with his wife and daughter and brusquely pushes through the group to the elevator button and pushes it. ""Very shrewd move," Breon says to him. Morgan snaps back, "Not at all. You'd have done it yourself if it had occurred to you." I laughed so hard on that one that I had to stop the DVD and back up to go from that point. One very curious thing about this film was its time of release. It came out in September, 1944, so it was likely being made well before the June 6 D-Day landings at Normandy. The country was then in the thick and thin of World War II. Perhaps that's one reason why the strong family and love of children theme stood out to me. The viewing audience first seeing this film were people on the home front working to support our troops, and worrying about loved ones off at war. So, the strong family heartstrings would be felt by that audience, where that may not be so obvious to viewers today. Another curious thing about this film was its lack of any reference to the war going on. Nowhere in the film is there mention or even a hint of the war. That must have been intentional. The filmmakers likely had to go out of their way to not have something about the war be seen or inadvertently filmed. A rare shot of a street scene in Chicago showed an early 1940s model car. Also, in the hospital waiting room and at the baby viewing window, there were no very young fathers – all appeared to be in their 30s or older. By 1943, the draft age range had dropped to between 18 and 38 years of age. About one in five men were then being inducted. Cooper was then 37 years old, but his character was 31 years old. So, this is one of the very few films I know of in the midst of World War II that shows civilian families going on with their lives and having children.
bkoganbing
Gary Cooper in the first half of the Forties made four films for director Sam Wood. Three of them were big budget items, Pride of the Yankees, For Whom The Bells Toll, and Saratoga Trunk. The fourth is a pleasant and innocuous little comedy called Casanova Brown.The film was adapted by Floyd Dell who wrote the novel and play it was based on called Accidental Father. It had previously been filmed twice by Warner Brothers and once by the French cinema. It ran on Broadway in the 1929 season and probably got closed with the stock market crash.All the names were changed in this adaption, but the plot line remained essentially the same. Gary Cooper is about to get married to Anita Louise when he gets a cryptic note from Teresa Wright. He confides in Anita's father, Frank Morgan who is a fellow colleague at the college where Cooper is an English professor. Morgan also seems to function more as a western sidekick for Cooper than a father of the bride for Louise.Cooper's little secret is that he was ever so briefly married to Teresa Wright. Her cryptic note says he should go to a maternity hospital in Chicago and see a certain doctor there. Cooper of course arrives at some logical conclusions. Teresa of course has an agenda of her own and I can't say too much more as both women fight for Cooper. Of course with that baby, Ms. Wright definitely has the upper hand.Casanova Brown was the second of two films Cooper and Wright did together, the first being the highly acclaimed Pride of the Yankees. This film isn't anything like the epic story of Lou Gehrig, but it is definitely a pleasant enough diversion. It's an opportunity to see Frank Morgan in a rare appearance outside the MGM studio. He has some very good moments in Casanova Brown as Cooper's confidante.However Casanova Brown has one claim to immortality. There is a flashback sequence where Cooper is telling Morgan about the relationship with Wright. After they've eloped Wright brings Cooper to meet her parents who are played by Edmond Breon and Patricia Collinge. Collinge is a believer in astrology and no smoking. Cooper in an effort to hide the fact he smoked a cigarette in their house, manages to burn their house down. It is one of the most hilarious things ever put on film.The rest of the film is good and entertaining, but it doesn't match up to that scene. See Casanova Brown for that alone.
