ITS A WONDERFUL WORLD

US, 1939, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Claudette Colbert, James Stewart, Guy Kibee, Nat Pendleton, Frances Drake, Edgar Kennedy, Ernest Truex, Sydney Blackmer.
Directed by W.S.Van Dyke.

Screwball comedies were not a main feature of MGM productions in the 1930s. However, here is an example, with Claudette Colbert starring, in a variation of her performance, Oscar-winning, in It Happened One Night, 1934. James Stewart does his perennial lanky, somewhat bewildered, earnest and committed comic role. There is some amusing support, especially from Nat Pendleton as a not very bright policeman and Guy Kibbee, continually getting knocked out, as a partner in a private eye company.

The film begins with a murder. James Stewart is a private eye, wanting to prove that his client was innocent, but both apprehended, tried in court and sentenced to jail. On the trip to prison, Stewart engineers an escape having found a clue to solve the murder. He becomes entangled with a poetess, finding her a drag, then finding her helpful, then changing his mind, but she, finally, enabling him to solve the case.

The screenplay, by top writers, Ben Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz, stretches credibility, but there are a lot of amusing sequences, culminating in Stewart having to be a Louisiana captain in a stage version of What Price Glory – and a sinister plot involving Frances Drake and Sydney Blackmer revealed.

One of the many films directed by W.S.Van Dyke at this time, including many operettas with Jeanette Mac Donald and Nelson Eddy.

1. The title, from Edwina’s poem? Lying that she had just composed it, quoted on the media?

2. MGM production, locations, the stars, the supporting cast? Musical score?

3. The 30s and the exaggerations of screwball comedies, characters, unlikely situations, resolutions?

4. James Stewart as Guy Johnson, his client, private detective from being a salesman, partnership with the Major? His wayward client? Trying to save him, going to the hotel, the setup in the room, the murder, their both being arrested, in court, sentenced to jail? The need to solve the case? The clue of the half dime?

5. On the train, playing cards, discovering the newspaper advertisement? Handcuffed to Sgt Koretz? The leap from the train, into the river, getting free? The encounter with Edwina? Her fears? The handcuffs, the car, driving, in the woods, the scout and his information, the thick glasses, the disguise and deceiving the police?

6. The police chief, coronets and his associate, their pursuit, finding Johnson and Edwina’s story about the elopement, the photograph, coronets giving $10 to Johnson? The police chief, the photo in the paper, exasperation?

7. Edwina, poet, her quote? Preparing breakfast for Johnson, knowing the truth from the papers? The battle of the sexes? Johnson and his sexism, his down on women? Edwina using her ingenuity, his changing his opinion?

8. Travelling on the boat, going to the town for the play, his jumping overboard, coming to the theatre, finding Edwina there, posing as a journalist?

9. The situation with the play, What Price Glory, the director, her audition for Johnson, giving him the part? The various members of the cast, stage manager? Trying to find the identity of the person who put the message in the paper? Narrowing it down?

10. The audience knowing that the millionaire’s wife was in cahoots with her lover, framing the husband, coming to the town, at the hotel? The lover on the stage?

11. The performance, the shooting, the mistaken identity? The information about the caravan park?

12. The major, Edwina hitting him? Coronets and the police? Edwina and her frantic story, saying that Johnson was guilty, taking everyone to the caravan
park, the confrontation, the solution?

13. Edwina as the heroine, enjoying the action, and Johnson having to change his mind about women? And the hundred thousand dollar fee?