Casanova Brown

I am having a blast streaming movies on Netflix that I never saw before.  I really appreciate the movies of yesteryear.  

Casanova Brown stars Gary Cooper as Casanova Brown, Teresa Wright as Isabel Drury, Frank Morgan as Mr. Ferris, Anit Louise as Madge Ferris, Edmund Breon as Mr. Drury and Patricia Collinge as Mrs. Drury.  Casanova Brown was directed by Sam Wood and released in 1944.  

Gary Cooper was born in 1901, so he was in his forties when he worked on this film.  Teresa Wright was 16 years younger than Gary Cooper and was 25 at the time.  The age difference was quite stark to me.   Teresa looked more like a teenager.  Gary Cooper was 6'3" tall and it certainly shows in this movie.  Mr. Cooper was quite handsome as well.  I can understand why the late actress Patricia Neal under his spell.   
 

Casanova (Cas) Brown is a professor who arrive by train to Rossmore, a small town in Illinois.  Cas is met by his fiance Madge Ferris and is clearly upset when he arrives.  Cas tells Madge never to let him out of her sight again and never mention New York.  Madge seems like a lovely gal, but when Cas asks her father for her hand in marriage he tells him not to marry Madge because she is no good.You will recognize Madge's father as the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.  

Anyway, Cas doesn't want to hear anything against Madge and is determined to marry her.  
 

The day before the wedding is the wedding rehearsal.  Before the rehearsal begins Cas receives a letter from a maternity hospital in Chicago.  Madge's father is there when the letter arrives and becomes alarmed.  Cas is cool at first because he thinks the letter is just an advertisement being sent through the mail.  Mr. Ferris opens the letter and it is not a mail advertisement.  It is a letter from the hopsital requesting that Casanova come to the maternity hospital right away to see Dr. Zemerke..  
 

Cas finally begins to realize that he could have fathered a baby.  At this point Cas confesses to Mr. ferris that while he was in New York, he fell in love with a college student named Isabel and married her.  When cas left New York she could have been pregnant.  The only thing that did not make sense is why a maternity hospital in Chicago when Isabel lives in New York. 

The story about Isabel is told in flashbacks.  After Isabel and Cas were married, she took him to introduce to her parents.  Isabel's parents are completely off the wall.  Mrs. Drury believes strongly in astrology and when she looks up Cas's astro sign she tells the happy couple that the marriage will not work according to the astrological charts.  Of course Cas thinks it is the most ludicrous thing he ever heard.  

Mrs Drury is adamant that the astrological charts are never wrong. 

 

Cas gets into an argument with Isabel's parents over the validity of astrology.
 

Unknown to Cas, a cigarette that he thought he blew out is burning a hole in his coat pocket.  In less time that it takes me to write this post, Cas completely burned down the home of Isabel's parents by accident.  

After the house is left in ashes Cas gets into another argument with Isabel's parents.  Cas storms off, but Isabel remains by the side of her parents.  Their marriage was annulled before Cas returned to New York.  

During the wedding rehearsal Cas walks out because he has to know if he has a child that he was never told about.  Cas swears Mr. Ferris to secrecy, at least until he returns from Chicago.

When Cas arrives at the maternity hospital in Chicago, he can't get a straight forward answer from anyone about why he was asked to come there.  Instead Cas is whisked off and put through a complete physical examination.

Dr. Zemerke and Casanova Brown

(Btw, the actress who played Dr. Zemerke was the first wife of Sir Laurence Olivier.)

After the physical cas is finally taken to see Dr. Zemerke and learns that Isabel had a baby and that he is the father of a newborn girl.  Cas is delighted, but then he also finds out that Isabel put the baby up for adoption.  That was the reason he was called to the hospital by Dr. Zemerke.  Cas becomes very upset because there is no way that he is going to part with his baby girl.

Cas asks to speak to Isabel about the baby and it is clear that he still loves his ex-wife.  At this point Madge has already been stood up at the altar.

 

Cas disguised himself as a doctor in order to kidnap the baby.  In a hotel Cas gets the help of a maid and bellhop to help him take care of the baby.  Cas is an overprotective father and insists that everyone wear a mask when around the baby.  The maid and bellhop are determined to help Cas keep the baby's location a secret, however, the bellhop is a bumbling idiot and inadvertently reveals to Isabel and Dr. Zemerke their exact location. 
 

Cas runs off with the baby to get marry the hotel maid.  If he is married then the baby cannot be taken away from him.

Cas and the maid return to the hotel but hide out in another room.  Isabel manages to find them when she hears the baby crying.  

I assume that mommy, daddy and baby girl live happily ever after.

Casanova Brown is billed as a romantic comedy.  I enjoyed watching this movie, but I personally did not find it hysterically funny.  I had belly loads of laughs when I watched Monkey Business, but I did not get that from this movie.  I did enjoy watching it though.  The characters are quite eccentric and I did get a few chuckles out of that. 

As with all movies from this time period I loved the clothes.  The wardrobe is classic and timeless.  

Until September

I streamed Until September this afternoon.  This movie was originally released in 1984.  It stars Karen Allen and French actor Thierry Lhermitte.  I found myself tearing up at the end, but I have very mixed feelings about this movie because of the subject matter of adultery.  Thierry plays the part of French banker Xavier de la Perouse.  Karen plays the part of Mo Alexander.  Mo is a horticulturalist from the States.  She is escorting a group through Europe when she misses her flight in Paris.  How Mo ends up missing her flight is the first ridiculous thing about this movie.  First of all she stops to use a pay phone (remember those?) to call her sister to reminder her about something she had already left a note about.  After the phone call Mo cannot find gate 7, yet everyone else seems to have found it without a problem.  Mo finally finds gate 7 just in time to see the plane with all her baggage on it pulling out of the gate.  

Mo tries to make arrangements to catch up with her group but fails.  Mo is lucky enough to end up staying at a friend's beautiful Paris apartment that is just a few steps from the apartment of very handsome Xavier.  Xavier's wife and two children are away for the summer until September.  Mo is immediately attracted to Xavier.  I cannot blame her for that.  Xavier is handsome, sexy and very charming.  Mo tells Xavier that he has the most beautiful eyes that she has ever seen.  Xavier decides to make the move on Mo and asks her out to dinner.  Xavier is expecting the dinner to end with the two of them in bed.  Xavier is in a marriage of convenience for both him and his wife and is used to having mistresses on the side.  Mo resists Xavier's advances at first, but then she decides to throw caution to the wind and ends up having a physical and emotional relationship with Xavier.  After three weeks Mo is in love and starts to question Xavier about his marriage and mistresses.  Mo begins to question Xavier about his dishonest lifestyle.  This is what I don't get.  Mo knew that Xavier was married when she decided to become intimate with him.  This is a married man who had absolutely no problem screwing other women besides his wife as if it is a lifestyle that was perfectly alright as long as you are discrete about it.

Mo wants her relationship with Xavier to be different than the ones her had with his other mistresses.  Mo wants Xavier to commit to her.  What?  Even if his marriage is one of convenience it still does not explain away his willingness to so easily cheat on his wife.  I would never trust a married man to be faithful to me.  If he cheated on his wife with me he could cheat on me as well.        

 Karen Allen

 Thierry Lhermitte

There is quite a bit of nudity in this film but it is tastefully done.  Well, at least in my opinion it is.  Others may be offended.  Personally, I was not really feeling the chemistry between Karen and Thierry, but both of them played their parts very well and seemed very comfortable;e with each other.  

 

As I  have already written the ending was tear jerker for me and the movie on a whole is disturbing on several levels.   One thing that was good is that Thierry began to question being married for convenience.  He did become emotionally involved in his relationship with Mo and began to realize that he was missing something more important in life.

Richard Armitage in NYC for The Hobbit

The dapper Englishman has been in NYC this week for the The Hobbit premiere and junket tour.  Enjoy the photos.  You know that I am loving them.  

 

Richard in NYC signing autographs.  

The two photos below were actually taken in Toronto before Richard arrived in NYC.