Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

Theodora Goes Wild
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
Written by Sidney Buchman from an original story by Mary McCarthy
1936/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing

[box] Michael Grant: I’ll be happy when I’m darn good and ready to be happy, and not a minute sooner.[/box]

Irene Dunne shows all the pizzaz that will make her such a standout in The Awful Truth in this wacky romantic comedy.

Theodora Lynn plays the church organ and lives in the tiny town of Lynnfield with her two maiden aunts. Under the pen name Caroline Adams, she has secretly written a best selling novel called “Sinner” that has scandalized the town.  When Theodora travels to New York to see her publisher, she continues to urge him that her identity be hidden.  But a pushy young illustrator (Melvyn Douglas) smells a rat and follows her back to Lynnfield where he embarrasses her mightily and finally causes her to rebel when she falls in love with him.  When she admits her love, he flees.

She follows him to New York where she finds out that he is trapped in a loveless marriage by convention and duty to his straightlaced politician father.  What’s good for the gander is good for the goose, and Theodora turns the tables on him with her newly wild ways.

Irene Dunne is simply stunning here.  Her antics, including a great drunk scene, are a scream.  The script is not nearly as clever as in The Awful Truth but all the elements that make Dunne’s Lucy Warriner such a delight are already present in this, Dunne’s first comedy role.  One thing that didn’t work for me was Douglas’s character.  He struck me as too obnoxious to make Theodora go head over heals.  The character picks up in the second half when Theodora gets her own back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuIHxTNkuVk

Trailer – “in her heart she longed to be called “baby””!