ThiefHott Too much of everything

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

lnoft97 Graceless, unfunny, illogical, frustrating dumb movie. Ann Sheridan marries a 'Frenchman' after WWII and can't seem to get the bureaucracy to enable him to leave Europe to move to the States as her husband. War brides aplenty, the female war brides, of course had little problem being brought back in triumph by their US military husbands. War 'grooms', such as Mr. Grant, had a hard time of it. However, that is really neither here nor there. This movie is not very amusing, I found it silly, witless, and very disappointing considering the cast. Cary Grant is wonderful in anything, but he goes through much trial and trauma here. Ann Sheridan has about as graceful and romantic as an old, grizzled drill instructor. She is so bossy, mean, witless, and graceless on wonders WHY these two ever got married. As for the Male War Bride bit, there are about 10-15 slightly amusing minutes of Mr. Grant, looking ridiculous in a hideous wig and blouse and skirt. Haw haw. Disappointing, though apparently some love this movie and consider it a classic.

lasttimeisaw A post-WWII Howard Hawks screwball comedy transpires in the Allied-occupied Germany, Cary Grant plays a French Army Captain Henri Rochard, who is teamed up with American Lieutenant Catherine Gates (Sheridan) in his last mission before bowing out of military service once and for all. It starts as a typical ill-matched pair reluctantly bundled together (even sharing the same bed one evening), who are constantly at each other's throats through comedy of errors, more often than not, at Henry's expense, but, improbable to audience, a budding romantic is bound to emerge from both sides and by the end of their task, they are going to tie the knot. Honestly, the first half is very pleasurable with Grant adopts his tried-and-tested winning formula to juggle goofy, loosey-goosey innocuousness with snit-driven prolixity, meanwhile a proactive Ann Sheridan pulls no punch to prove that as a woman, her Catherine is no lesser to any masculine peer of hers, she can operate a spanking vehicle as competent as fast-tracking their mission. In truth, it is this conformity-defying, role-swapping gender politics that gingers up the film right out of the box, however, in the second half, when the narrative is mired in overwrought red tapes, only to put the newly weds in the quagmire of a repeatedly deferred marriage consummation, and laboriously plays up the same source of amusement that Henri must apply as a war bride in order to be emigrated to USA as Catherine's spouse, the film's allure starts to pall, and its objectionable ethnocentric overtone doesn't help either. When the plot reaches that mane-clipping, nurse-impersonating climax, it only leaves a first-time viewer gobsmacked, not by the plan's wits but the whole idiocy which Hawks condones, maxing out Cary Grant's belabored discomfiture but largely relegating Ann Sheridan on the sideline, an utter betrayal to its promising premise. Another Golden Age Hollywood crowd-pleaser doesn't come through the test of time, as at one point Henri jests that woman is, au contraire, not the weaker gender to man since they are blessed with more sleep, the joke is in fact on the film and Hawks himself, a blatant tokenism in addressing gender equality, but cranked out inside a masculine hothouse, it is the same old blarney that now borders on offense.

utgard14 In postwar Germany, French captain Cary Grant is assigned to work on a mission with American lieutenant Ann Sheridan. The two have a past that we're never completely clued in on but it leads to them bickering for the first half of the movie. While struggling through a series of misadventures, the two eventually fall in love. But the misadventures are only starting as they soon discover when they try to get married and have to contend with bureaucratic hassles and headaches.According to Robert Osborne on TCM, Cary Grant considered this his best comedy. Given how many classic comedies he was in, it's hard to see why. This is good but it's not THAT good. The film reunites Grant with Howard Hawks, with whom he made some great films years before. It's also Grant's only film with Ann Sheridan, whose career seemed to take a nosedive after this. She's fun here although her character is a little grating at first. Cary does most of the heavy lifting on the comedy front. He's as charming as ever. It's a funny enough comedy helped by the likability of the two stars. The most famous part of the movie, where Grant dresses in drag (and makes for one ugly woman), doesn't occur until near the end and is only good for a chuckle or two. Fans of Hawks and the two leads will want to check it out and decide for themselves.

cricket crockett . . . proved more dangerous to film in Real Life than lensing SCHINDLER'S LIST. However, you'd never know this from a casual viewing of I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE, the first half of which features Cary Grant's and Ann Sheridan's characters searching post-WWII Germany for a black marketeer named "Schindler," who apparently grinds rare military-grade lenses. Filmming had to break off for months mid-shoot as Cary Grant, playing the BRIDE, nearly died of hepatitis, while co-star Ann Sheridan battled life-threatening pleurisy and pneumonia. Most Americans forget or never learned that U.S. Gen. "I-Like-Ike" Eisenhower, to avenge WWII, killed several MILLION German P.O.W.s and civilians through denying them access to food and medicine from 1945 through 1948. (These facts are NOT in most history books, because War's winners write the texts, which then are censored by the Texas State School Board.) When I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE filmed ON LOCATION, every inch of Germany was crawling with corpses and the deadliest germs known to mankind, making it one big happy Death Camp. But Hollywood's moguls had no qualms about nearly sacrificing the lives of Mr. Grant and Ms. Sheridan (plus probably ACTUAL fatalities among the lesser known cast and crew) on the altar of political expediency (as in, "Hey, Middle America, watch this movie and then book a Bavarian vacation!") while the fat cats themselves were snuggled safely in their Tinsel Town castles. If all this sounds like an apt analogy for generals and privates in War, you only need to watch I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE with informed eyes to notice how haggard Mr. Grant and Ms. Sheridan look towards the end. You may conclude that this flick was a total travesty, parading as Art.