I Was a Male War Bride (1949)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

NOTES: Number 9 at Australian ticket windows for 1950; number 10 at the British box-office for 1949; number 2 at U.S./Canadian cinemas, its gross rental receipts of $4.1 million being exceeded only by the $5 million returned by Jolson Sings Again. Despite this popularity, the movie does not figure on any of the usual "Ten Best" lists from contemporary critics and commentators.COMMENT: Slow, dated romantic comedy. Most of the humor consists of (1) a risqué element that was doubtless considered very daring in a Hollywood film of 1949 but is now totally passé; (2) tilts at officialdom and red tape which even in 1949 had been pretty well done to death and now more than ever seem like flogging a dead horse; (3) elementary slapstick including such hoary old gags as climbing up a pole to read a sign labelled "Wet Paint". Each gag is introduced and developed at a funereal pace. The accent is heavily on talk and such humor as there is, is sometimes muffed by the inept direction of Howard Hawks. Comedy was NOT his forte! Still, thanks to the hard-working cast, some laughs do manage to survive. Although he makes no attempt at a French accent, Cary Grant makes a good contrast to Ann Sheridan. These two clashing personalities do manage to strike a few sparks. The rest of the cast is more than competent, though only a few of the players are known to us and their parts are small.Some of the wisecracks are fairly amusing and a bit of the slapstick (the stuntman going up on the level crossing gate, Grant mumbling to an empty chair as the process screen speeds by) is mildly diverting. But the film as a whole, despite its exceptionally lavish production values, including extensive location filming with the principals against actual German locales, could benefit by considerable trimming.Hawks' direction is occasionally imaginative (the gate rising behind the train, Grant coming into view in front of the lieutenant's window), occasionally inept (switching to another angle for the bike and sidecar gag was a mistake), but mostly dull.

Brace yourself for what might be an unpopular opinion: this is a rare swing and a miss for Cary Grant and Howard Hawks, two artists near their peaks, both with great batting averages.A strangely uncharming Grant and an oddly unsexy Ann Sheridan simply snipe at each other while paired on a dull military mission for nearly an hour, absent any real chemistry or laughs; eventually the two surprisingly unlikable characters seem to glance at their watches and realize it's time to fall in love and move on to the next thing.The next thing is what I call a frustration comedy: a series of circumstances work to foil the characters at every turn. In this case, it's thick-headed U.S. Army bureaucracy that torments newlyweds Grant and Sheridan in a way that is unpleasant at best (and extremely grating for this viewer). For one extended sequence, Grant is denied a place to sleep in either army or civilian quarters, turned away from one place and then another and another, even officiously pulled from an improvised bed and sent into the night, simply because he is a "male bride". It's almost as much screwball fun as watching someone being put on hold by an automated phone service. (The Army must have HATED this damaging portrayal).Once the wooden pair are married, the comic focus of the film shifts to flogging the joke spelled out in the title, and though it's the type of thing Grant usually did superbly- see "Bringing Up Baby", also with Hawks- it simply isn't funny here.Well, even the great ones miss now and then, and fortunately Grant's, Hawk's, and Sheridan's fine legacies don't hang on this stumble.

This is an enjoyable and somewhat interesting movie, for two reasons. First is the obvious hilarious performance by Cary Grant with all the mishaps that occur to him. Most are due to Ann Sheridan, his provocateur. Some are of his own making. Second is the picture we get of the war devastation that remained in Germany four years after the end of WW II. Grant plays a French Army captain, Henri Rochard. Sheridan plays a U.S. Army WAC, Lt. Catherine Gates, who serves as a German interpreter. Their work is to retrieve stolen art works, documents, etc. that were taken by the Nazis. The film is based very loosely on a book by Henri Rochard, the pen name of Roger Henri Charlier. He was a Belgian Army major and wrote about his experience with red-tape in order to marry an American nurse after WW II and travel with her to the U.S. "I Was an Alien Spouse of Female Military Personnel Enroute to the United States Under Public Law 271 of the Congress," was published in 1947. The difficulties getting married and traveling to the U.S. are the only parts of the film that resemble the book. All of the rest of the hijinks and mishaps are fiction. A condensed version of his story appeared in the Baltimore Sunday Sun of Sept. 28, 1947 ("I Was a Male War Bride").The real Charlier's story would make an interesting movie itself. A native of Antwerp, he was highly educated and spoke four languages. He served in the Belgian Army until its defeat and then worked for the Allied resistance. He was captured and spent some time in a P.O.W. camp. After the war, he returned to duty as a Belgian liaison officer for the Nuremberg Trials and the Dachau War Crimes Trials. Charlier was hit by a car and taken to a U.S. Army hospital. That's where he met Catherine, a U.S. Army nurse. He later was discharged from the Belgian Army and went to work as a civilian for the U.S. War Department. He and Catherine became engaged. That's where the movie begins to borrow from his story. It took a few months to get permission for their marriage from the U.S. Army. Then it took four months to be cleared by the U.S. Consulate. Only the real Rochard (Charlier) did not dress in drag to get on the ship. In the end, Dr. Roger Henri Charlier became an American citizen. He earned four doctorates, and was professor of geography, geology and oceanography at Northeastern Illinois University. Much of the movie was filmed on location in Germany. This was 1949 and the war devastation is clear in the opening scene as Rochard's taxi drives through areas of rubble in Heidelberg. We see more devastation as Rochard and Gates start on their 75-mile (120 km) drive. But, the town of their destination, Bad Nauheim, was not bombed or shelled during the war. It is a world-famous resort, known for its salt springs. Franklin Roosevelt visited several times as a child with his father who went there for hydrotherapy treatments. And, it has more interesting history.English author and publisher Ford Madox Ford wrote his famous 1915 novel, "The Good Soldier," in and about the town. A movie by the same name was made for British TV in 1981. General George Patton was head of the 15th Army headquartered there in 1945 when he died after a road accident in December. In 1959, Elvis Presley lived there with his family while he was stationed in the U.S. Army at nearby Friedberg. And, Bad Nauheim is where 115 Americans from the Berlin embassy were interned after Hitler declared war on the U.S. on Dec. 11, 1941.The American civilians were put up in the Grand Hotel which, then, was anything but grand. When Germany went to war, tourism ended in 1939. The Grand Hotel was closed and all the staff dispersed. Pipes broke and the hotel fell into disrepair. That's how the Americans found it the winter of 1941. With no heat it got down to zero in January. The Americans had poor rations. Finally, with complaints lodged through Swiss emissaries, rations and conditions improved. In May 1942, the Americans were repatriated by train to Lisbon, Portugal, and then by ship to New York. At the same time, the German diplomatic corps and press were freed by the .U.S. to return to Germany. Now, back to the movie. Some viewers think of this as a screwball comedy. But its dialog is devoid of the repartee that is a major part of screwball comedy. It more resembles an Abbot and Costello comedy, where Grant is the buffoon to whom everything happens, and Sheridan is the straight man. It reminded me of Lucille Ball's slapstick comedy in her long-running TV show, "I Love Lucy." Everything happened to her. Most of the screwball comedies I've seen have good portions of humor happening all around – with slapstick and dialog. Some reviewers saw a "chemistry" between Grant and Sheridan. Well, I remember chemistry class and that if we mixed some of the "wrong" things, we could wind up with a small bomb or a stinker. So, all chemistry isn't good, and there certainly isn't any in this movie between Grant and Sheridan. I have watched this film three or four times over the years, and I never could see a spark of love. Grant's Rochard seemed open to romance at times (not love, romance), but Sheridan's Gates was cold and aloof. With no spark of love, the marriage just wasn't probable. I too believe that laughter is a cure for many ills. But, I wonder how much people enjoyed this movie in 1949. Especially those who had served in the war and those living in Europe then.

A postwar Germany is the setting for this delightful comedy. Capt. Henri Rochard, a French officer, had been involved in the Allies effort to stop counterfeit products that were a big problem to control. He was a good collaborator who worked closely with the American forces trying to put an end to the practice. Henri had teamed up with Catherine Gates, an American officer a no nonsense woman who got things done, as expected.It was no wonder Henri and Catherine fell in love. They saw in one another a perfect match. At the time a lot of European women had met and fell in love with G.I.s who fought in WWII. As a result, there was a massive movement to bring those newlywed brides, many with children, to America. Henri, having married Catherine, finds himself in a quandary. Being married to an American soldier, he did not stand a chance to ever come to live in America with Catherine. But laws are meant to be broken because a loophole allows a male spouse to have the same privileges as women.This was a hilarious comedy in its day. Seeing today it might not have the same effect as when it originally released. Howard Hawks, perhaps one of the most original film directors of his generation, was one of the first Americans to take his film to a devastated Germany. The screenplay was written by Leonard Spigelgass, Charles Lederer and Hagar Wilde, a distinguished triad veterans from Hollywood. Osmond Borradale and Norbert Brodine are credited as the cinematographers. Their black and white photography shows what Germany looked like after the conflict.A lively and sassy Ann Sheridan made a perfect Catherine Gates. Evidently she was having a good time in the film, and it comes across in one of her best screen appearances. Paired with a Howard Hawks favorite, Cary Grant, the combination was powerful indeed. And yet, this was not one of Mr. Grant's best screen appearances. His Henri Rochard comes across as a bit uncomfortable, perhaps due to the fact he had to dress as a woman to get on board the ship bringing the newly wed wives to America.It is a tribute to Howard Hawks enormous talent this film has survived the passing of time.