Double Wedding (1937)

Double Wedding
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by Jo Swerling based on a play by Ferenc Molnar
1937/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing

[box] Charles Lodge: Women don’t like noble, self-sacrificing men. Women are not civilized like we are. They like bloodshed. They like forceful men, like me.[/box]

I had never heard of this movie before, so it came as a delightful suprise.

Margit Agnew (Myrna Loy) is naturally bossy and has taken over her sister Irene’s life since their mother died.  Their mother selected milquetoast Waldo Beaver (John Beal) for Irene’s fiance and for four years he has been living with Margit and Irene without marrying.  Irene dreams of being an actress and she and Waldo have been working with some-time film director and bohemian painter Charles Lodge (William Powell).  Margit finds out and confronts Lodge but he does not scare easily.  Irene has become infatuated with Lodge and he uses the prospect of a marriage to see more of Margit.  With Jessie-Ralph as Margit’s free-thinking older friend and Edgar Kennedy as a bar owner.

I thought this was hilarious.  I laughed out loud many times at the dialogue and antics of the characters.  I especially enjoyed John Beal’s deadpan comedy turn. Oddly, he was a dramatic actor and I can’t find much more of him to watch.  Of course, Powell and Loy are fantastic. There’s some slapstick but mostly this relies on pure wit.  It’s in the screwball comedy vein but not too frenetic.  I don’t want to spoil more by going on but I really felt like I had discovered a gem.  Recommended.

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