So Goes My Love (1946)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

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

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

"So Goes My Love" is a film that one wishes had been better than it is. It's a fictional biopic about Hiram S. Maxim who invented a machine gun, curling iron and other things. The film is based on a story by his son, Hiram Percy Maxim, who was himself a prolific inventor. Maxim's inventions get little attention in this film. Instead, it's more about his personal life, meeting his first wife, and their family. It's supposed to be a comedy, drama and biopic.However humorless Hiram senior may have been, Hollywood surely could infuse enough energy and humor into his character to make the story more interesting. With Myrna Loy and Don Ameche in the leads, and a good idea for a plot, this film had potential. But, unfortunately, it turns out to be slow and just so-so for entertaining. I think the fault lies in a weak script, poor direction, and a lame acting job by Don Ameche. Some pep shots of humor in the script would have put life into the screenplay. And, a pep pill for breakfast each day of shooting for Ameche might have brought his character to life. I understand that his Hiram Maxim is supposed to be a deadpan character. But that doesn't mean that he has to move about as though he were a robot with a recorder playing his lines. He underplays the part so much that it stretches the credibility of the audience to think that Loy's character could see anything in the man. Ameche could act and could do comedy very well. He was absolutely hilarious at Tibor Czerny, a deadpan role opposite Claudette Colbert in "Midnight" of 1939. One can imagine Fred MacMurray in the part of Maxim. He was among the best – if not the number one leading man in deadpan comedy. And, he played a number of roles as a tinkerer. The only thing that earns this film my six stars is Myrna Loy's Jane Budden Maxim. Her knowing glances, looks of polite shock and other expressions are priceless. These are the things that made her a perfect film companion in so many wonderful comedies with William Powell. The camera catches them here, but unfortunately, the rest of the film is quite flat. It's too bad some of Jane's energy and enthusiasm didn't wear off on Ameche's Hiram.

Jane Budden (Myrna Loy) has decided to leave her farm and move to the big city in order to find a husband. Unlike some women, Jane is very open about wanting a successful husband and why she ends up marrying the far from successful Hiram Maxim (Dno Ameche) is perplexing. However, over time, this crackpot inventor actually turns out to be very successful. This film is about their life together and the family. Interestingly, unlike many other films of the era, this one is relatively uneventful--more a slice of life film instead of one with any great events or crazy happenings. Instead, it's just a nice little showcase for two actors away from their home studios (Loy with MGM and Ameche with 20th Century Fox) and doing a film for Universal. Nothing great, nothing bad about this one...just a nice story and nice acting.

Since I'm partial to almost any Myrna Loy film, I recorded "So Goes My Love" with the intention that I might watch the first 10 minutes and then hit delete. However, to my delight, this quirky comedy based on the early married life of Hiram Maxim (Don Ameche) turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable.Loy and Ameche made a wonderful screen pair. Always elegantly coiffed and dressed, they are a very attractive couple with perfect chemistry. They both play the "straight man" which makes the humor very subtle and underplayed. It is the opposite of the screwball comedies that I so dearly love. Its quirkiness makes most every scene tongue in cheek funny more so than laugh out loud funny and it works well. I particularly enjoyed the casting of the extremely talented Loy and Ameche as well as a young Bobby Driscoll who plays their son, Percy, with such a natural talent that even he could underplay the humor appropriately.The movie is actually based on the 1936 book by Percy called "A Genius in the Family." The book was a series of family anecdotes that Percy recounted from his early life. The plot is actually the tying of each anecdote together to make a precious story. There is little focus on what Hiram was inventing as that was not the point of the film since it is really more of a family film. Further reading (which I easily found on the Internet) is necessary if you really want to learn more of the actual Maxim family history. Meanwhile, if you want to relax and enjoy a cute film that was probably laced with lots of Hollywood glamour and fiction, then I recommend this enjoyable gem.

Based on Hiram Percy Maxim's memoir, 'A Genius in the Family,' this film attempts, rather poorly, to explore the comedic aspects of Maxim's relationship to his father, Hiram Steven Maxim. Taken by itself, it's a rather superficial film about the man who revolutionized the machine gun, by inventing the version that operates on the power of the bullets' expelled gases. Maxim's accomplishments are hardly mentioned, instead depending on the fictionalized relationships between his wife and son. The younger Maxim, by the way, founded the American Radio Relay League, the national organization of radio hams. While he he is famous to that particular fraternity, he is virtually unknown elsewhere, and even his father's fame is now largely forgotten.