Truly Dreadful Film

A different way of telling a story

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A comedy that seems out of place during World War II, this deals with a small town mayor (Irene Dunne) going to New York to interview a sculptor (Charles Boyer) about erecting a statue to her late husband to replace another one that for some reason was decapitated. Scandal finds her instead when he takes her to a notorious strip club that gets raided. He follows her back which gives her political rival (Charles Dingle) some ammunition to boot her out of office.Dunne and Boyer's third pairing is their only comedy and not a great one. It's sweet and pleasant, pleasantly acted, but lacking in energy. The delightful Charles Coburn once again steals every moment he is on screen as her old rascal of a father-in-law, anxious to see her re-married, presumably so his granddaughter by his son's first wife will stop pestering him. Coburn gets the kind of material that made him so amusing in the Jean Arthur films "The Devil and Miss Jones", "The More the Merrier" and "The Impatient Years".The stars do share chemistry, but when the story begins to get a bit serious, the interest comes to a grinding halt.Dunne is still able to perform a pratfall or two, looks lovely in a scene where she strips down to her negligee, and sings "I Get Ideas" in French charmingly. But when all is said and done, this is simply another variation of "Theodora Goes Wild" without the small-town parody present and as a result not nearly as funny.The love-starved stepdaughter briefly bogs the plot down with juvenile foolishness. When you've got professionals like Dunne, Boyer and Coburn, you really don't need anything else.

Yes, I know it was hyperbole saying that Satan made her hat, but I kept thinking only someone very evil could create such an ugly and god-awful hat. Yet, oddly, she bought it to make herself more attractive. This was a miserable failure! As for the film, Irene Dunne plays a very emotionally constricted widow who is the mayor of a small town. Since her husband's death, her life has been her job and her father-in-law (the wonderful Charles Coburn) wants her to live a little--date and have some fun. But she is a seemingly hopeless case and carries her husband's memory around like an albatross around her neck. By chance, she has a meeting with an artist (Charles Boyer). Boyer is a French romantic and she is obviously bothered by him. Very crazy things ensue and the ultimate result is pretty predictable but fun. Not a great film but a fun one.While the film was silly and enjoyable, one problem with it was the annoying character played by Mona Freeman. She was one-dimensional and impossible to believe as a real human being and the first 10 minutes she was in were the worst. Fortunately, she was just a supporting character--and a badly written one. But, on the other hand, Charles Coburn played a most delightful character--full of wonderful quips and easy to love. He made a career out of playing sweet manipulative guys like this (such as in his Oscar-winning performance in "The More The Merrier") as well as gruff old goats. I make it a point to see him in everything and I am never disappointed! He managed to breath some life into this otherwise ordinary film.By the way, in the elevator scene, look at the elevator operator. That's Alfalfa Switzer--of the Li'l Rascals fame. Also by the way, if the plot from this movie seems familiar, it was later re-worked on an episode of "I Love Lucy"!

Anne (Irene Dunne) lives with her father Jonathan (Charles Coburn) and her step-daughter Diana (Mona Freeman). She commissions a sculptor George (Charles Boyer) to work on a statue of her late husband. He moves into her garage to complete the work and romance is in the air. But for who.....? The film is a comedy/romance that is never funny. Charles Coburn provides most of the funny moments but there are far more irritating sequences, namely, whenever Mona Freeman or her boyfriend Gilbert (Jerome Courtland) are on screen. She needs a clout round the head and he plays a simpleton who annoyingly repeats "Goodnight" as his cool talk. This couple are a complete mis-match - she is intelligent and lively while he is slow and moronic - however, they are both very irritating so there is a common trait there. Irene Dunne pulls a few funny expressions but it's not enough to make this film good. It's just boring.........and Charles Boyer looks like a pudding.

The DVD of this movie that I received from Netflix paired it with another Irene Dunne comedy vehicle, the 1936 release "Theodora Goes Wild," and I can see why. "Together Again" (a generic title, by the way, and one that doesn't even really make much sense), borrows many plot points from that earlier film and rearranges them just enough to prevent this film from being a straight remake.Dunne plays the upstanding mayor of a provincial town who resists falling for an artist from the city (Charles Boyer) when she hires him to create a new statue for the town square. The statue happens to be of her late husband, the town's previous mayor, whose legacy Dunne has spent the years since his death trying to live up to. She becomes involved in a minor scandal while staying in the city, and tries to keep it from the town once she returns. But Boyer playfully uses it to blackmail her into accepting his advances. An additional storyline involving Dunne's daughter and her boyfriend adds some amusing complications to the situation.This film is a little bit of nothing, but it's cute and entertaining. It doesn't make any sense; plot developments spring out of thin air, and characters turn on a dime. But Dunne and Boyer make a good pair, and it's easy to see why they collaborated frequently. They have a lot of chemistry, and I've never liked Boyer better than here where he gets to show his comedic charming side. Terrific character actor Charles Coburn plays Dunne's father-in-law, whose purpose in life is to get Dunne married again. Some of the film's funniest moments come from hearing the things he says about his own granddaughter, a neurotic teenager who drives him crazy.There's a clever little weather motif running through the film that I liked very much and that ties the otherwise scattershot screenplay together rather nicely.Grade: B