The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
starring Bette Davis, Monty Wolley, Ann Sheridan, and Jimmy Durante
directed by William Keighly

-Usually the holidays bring out the traditional array of Christmas-themed films; Its a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34 St. (either version, ) Christmas in Connecticut, etc...Yet there are very few films which can be prescibed for those post-holiday days of winter that seem to lie in limbo. One exception is the charming farcial comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner.

The film takes place in the mid-west a week before Christmas Eve and tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Stanley, a prominent Ohio couple who are due to have revered author and critic Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Wolley) over for dinner. While the Stanley's are thrilled about their esteemed guest, the feeling is nowhere near mutual as Sheridan, a flamboyant personality to say the least, complains to his secretary Maggie (Bette Davis) about the engagement. Nonetheless Whiteside relents and while walking up the steps to the Stanley's front door, slips on some ice and breaks his hip. Confined to a wheelchair, the acid-tounged Whiteside, along with the helo of his colorful entourage, takes over the Stanley's household, essentially presiding over thier lives, much to the chagrin of his hosts.

Why this film isn't more well known remains a mystery for it is one if the greatest comedy farces of the 1940s. Not only does The Man Who Came to Dinner contain plenty of inuendos and misunderstood situations to satifsy fans of the genre, but it also offers up dialogue that proves both witty and hilarious. Most of the one-of-a-kind lines comes from Sheridan himself who can turn a phrase quicker than a slap in the face; leaving everyone he encounters stunned and speechless. Within minutes of meeting him, it becomes quite clear that Sheridan Whiteside is a man who the average person will either hold in adoration or loathe with contempt.

With such a larger than life figure as the central character, one would think that the characterizations of the supporting players would suffer as a result. Yet this isn't so. The filmmakers have taken great care to ensure that every character who enters the story does so with enough individuality in order to avoid being classified as one-dimensional. Among the many characters who populate The Man Who Came to Dinner are a spoiled theater actress, a flamboyant leading man, a woman-chasing film actor, a down-home newspaper editor, and Mr. Stanley's eccentric spinster sister Harriet, whose handful of scenes standout as odd, yet delightful peculiarities in an otherwise fast-paced film.

Based on the Broadway play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, The Man Who Came to Dinner also serves as an excellent look into the theater and film communities of the 30s and 40s. References to Lana Turner, Zazu Pitts, Catherine Cornell, and others are tossed about while Sheridan, Durante, and Reginald Gardner play variations of Gertrude Lawrence, Harpo Marx and Noel Coward respectively. Hart and Moss also famousy based their main character on famed critic Alexander Wolcott, who proved to a be a larger than life version of Wolley's Whiteside to say the least.

It is interesting to note Davis' role in the film. On the surface this seems to be the exact opposite of the roles she associated herself with for so long. The character of Maggie is without question the least flashy of any of the main roles and for the entire first act remains somewhat complacent toward Whiteside's antics. Yet as the film progresses and Maggie falls for the leading man, we see Davis emerge and give life to her character. So many elements make this one of the more interesting footnotes in her career; the film is a comedy, she is not the focal point, and her character in the end is sweet, but unremarkable. Nevertheless the image of Davis happily ice skating with the local newspaper editor and clumsily falling into the snow is a delightful one. Rarely did the actress show such playfulness and dreamy-eyed sensibility on screen.

As previously mentioned, the story take place just before Christmas Eve, yet this is hardly a Christmas film. While the holiday does provide a background to help speed the plot along and give certain characters a reason to come and go, the film is first and foremost a cleverly written piece of comedic farce that bears viewing after viewing in order to catch the most minute of details that was surely overlooked the first time around. So while nothing of note is playing at the cinemas in the humdrum days of winter, The Man Who Came to Dinner is a fun romp that helps to make the season go by faster.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fMcWKXVkQU