Login
That I Was a Male War Bride never rises to the propulsive, feverish comedic heights of films like Bringing Up Baby or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes can be easily forgiven, since it is Howard Hawks behind the lenses. You can’t hit a homerun every time at bat, but that it takes so long to get going is something of a problem. And Ann Sheridan seems out-gunned when next to Cary Grant, distinctly lacking the sardonic timing of Rosalind Russell or verbal-and-athletic sparing of Katharine Hepburn. Having said all of that, I Was a Male War Bride is still an enjoyable romp.
While the first half is off to a slow start, sometimes even boarding on the dull side of things, once our two main characters fall in love things pick up and its full steam ahead. Although during the first half a montage of Sheridan being put in the dominant position and Grant being forced to ride bitch is fairly amusing. Perhaps some of the problems I had with Sheridan can be traced back to the script. While Grant is given scenes which depict him sympathetically and prove how excellent of a farceur he was, Sheridan can come across as bitchy and mean-spirited, and not in an endearingly brassy way. Perhaps if she had been given a few more moments of warmth and tenderness I would have felt differently. Her work with James Cagney is always a treat, but maybe she’s more adept at being a gangster’s moll than a romantic comedy heroine. No matter in the end since the moment Grant steps onto the screen in full-on drag the film finally comes together in the appropriately madcap style that they had been going after all along. A pity the first half couldn’t match the tone of the second; we could have had something really special here.
