I LOVE YOU AGAIN
US, 1940, 99 minutes, Black and white.
William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank Mc Hugh, Edmund Lowe, Donald Douglas, Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer.
Directed by W. S. Van Dyke.
I Love You Again is one of the fourteen films that William Powell and Myrna Loy acted in together. They were most famous for the Thin Man series. They worked very comfortably on screen, both in serious sequences and, especially, in comic sequences. This is a variation on the themes that made them popular.
The film is a comedy about amnesia. William Powell plays a rather stuffy man on a liner who rescues a drunken man from the sea. When he is hit on the head by an oar, he regains his memory that he had lost after being hit nine years earlier. It turns out that he is a conman. The comedy is in his returning to America, to his home town, in the company of the man he rescued, another confidence man, Frank Mc Hugh. He discovers that he has a wife, that she wants to divorce him. He also find his place as a respectable citizen, especially with the boy scouts (and a comic situation where he has to lead the scouts on one of their exercises and saves face despite all the things that go wrong for him). He also decides that the parcel of land he owns can be sold if he fakes oil and the citizens think that oil can be drilled.
At the end, he has fallen in love with his wife again, and cannot go through with the deal. (One little boy in the cast is Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer, very well known in the time for the Our Gang shorts.)
1. A popular American comedy of the 30s and 40s? The aftermath of the screwball comedies of the 30s? William Powell and Myrna Loy, their star power, their ease at working with each other?
2. Black and white photography, the liner, New York, Habersville, Pennsylvania, the town, the woods outside, the lake? Realistic? The jaunty musical score?
3. The credibility of the plot, amnesia, regaining memory? Holding one’s own as a conman in difficult situations?
4. Larry Wilson, a bore on the liner, not drinking, encountering Ryan, his drunkenness, walking a line, falling from the boat, Larry tossed overboard, the rescue, hit on the head, hailed as a hero?
5. Larry discovering that he is really George Carey, nine years out of his life, his memory of his friends, Duke Sheldon and the cons? His decision to have Ryan help him? To return to the US and exploit it?
6. Kay, at the wharf, charming, Larry discovering that she was his wife? His coping, the hotel? Her hostility, his attraction, exercising charm, waiting on her, the shopping with her, the nightgown? Her reaction, puzzle? Her later saying she wanted a more dashing husband, discovering the man behind Larry? The return home, her putting him at arm’s length, her mother, the people in the town, the bank manager and his praise? Discovering his responsibilities, the nature of the bank accounts, his roles in charity? The scout leader, the parade, being led through the woods, trying to find the waterhole, his having to track the bear, the footprints, his falling down the holes, being trapped – but saving the situation and being admired?
7. The oil deal, Duke Sheldon putting the oil in the water? The boy scouts and being covered in oil, telling their fathers, being discovered searching the place at night, going to see Larry, the money deals? Duke Sheldon posing as a buyer, the issue of gravel? The higher rates? Kay and her intervening? Kay and her relationship with Herbert, his attention to her, Larry warding him off? Herbert in on the money deal?
8. The set-up, Kay and the walk with Larry, where he proposed? His being touched, deciding he can’t go through with the fraud, explaining to Ryan? Everybody assembling at the apartment? Duke Sheldon and his being upset, the fight? Larry being hit on the head? Everybody believing that he had reverted?
9. His waking up, pretending to have lost his memory, the cooing from his previous bill and coo sequence with Kay, the happy ending?
