Charming and brutal

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is a very funny movie starring Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in a film with a set-up similar to the Hepburn-Tracy classic Woman of the Year (1942). It deservedly won George Wells his only Oscar (on his only nomination) for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen, and was directed by Vincente Minnelli.Peck is a New York sportswriter who's on the West Coast on assignment, doing a story about a horse race. He wakes up from a drinking binge during which he had met New York fashion designer Bacall, though he doesn't recall it. While he struggles to recover from his hangover, she relates the events of the previous evening which included filling his latest story. He notices how beautiful she is, and they begin a brief torrid affair which leads to a hasty marriage. Of course, each is a "fish out of water" in the other's world, which they begin to discover when they return to New York. Since his apartment is a typically small, messy male abode, they decide to live in her fancy, pastel colored place. This leads to some amusing scenes when he holds his regular card game, with his beer drinking-cigar smoking buddies, in their new home, especially those which involve a punchy ex-boxer Maxie Stultz (Mickey Shaughnessy).Before his West Coast trip, apparently Peck was dating a leggy actress (Dolores Gray), who's a bit surprised, and none to happy, to find out that he's gotten himself married. Bacall knows nothing about this, though she does find pieces of a torn up picture, the actress's legs, while cleaning out his old apartment. Bacall's then hired to work on a film whose star is, of course, the ex-girlfriend. Though the three of them dine together, Peck pretends not to know Gray. One of the film's most hilarious scenes occurs when Bacall's theatrical crowd attempts to do their creative work (including "dancing" by Tom Helmore) for the film at the same time that Peck's macho friends are having their regular card game at the apartment.Besides failing to reveal his relationship with the actress to his new wife, Peck's character has also kept secret the fact that his life is in danger, because he has been writing a series of expose columns about a gangster (Chuck Connors), who's been corrupting sport. When his editor (Sam Levene) decides that Peck should "disappear"for a while in order to finish the series, Bacall finally makes the connection between the legs in the torn photograph and those of her film's leading lady, and assumes the worst.Without revealing too much more, I wanted to make sure to mention the funny scenes which involve Shaughnessy's character, who accompanies Peck for protection when he goes undercover. Though the two never leave New York, Peck is able to convince his punchy bodyguard that they're in a new city every time they change hotels. And, when he hears a bell ring, the ex-boxer thinks he's just been called to begin another round in a fight. Lastly, Jesse White plays the character that helps gangster Connors locate Peck, who will learn to respect Helmore's dancing ability.

A sportswriter (Gregory Peck) and a fashion-designer (Lauren Bacall) marry after a whirlwind romance, and discover they have little in common.Lauren Bacall was dealing with husband Humphrey Bogart's eventually-fatal illness during the shooting. According to her autobiography, she took the role (which was originally intended for Grace Kelly) in order to avoid her home situation, but in interviews she said that this film was among her favorites, and that she desperately wanted the part, even accepting a lower salary.Now, whatever the reason, I think Bacall is right for the part. I am not a big Bacall fan, as she reminds me of Katharine Hepburn, of whom I am also not a fan. But that attitude tends to work here, because she is not supposed to be lovable -- these are two opposing personalities coming to a head! What also helps is the boxing / mob undercurrent. Although not a major part of the plot, the film gets a little more interesting when a few rough guys show up and threaten Peck directly (while being nicely dressed). You are not quite sure what direction things will go from there...

A Tracy-Hepburn picture sans Spence and Kate. Of course, when it had those two it was called "Woman of the Year"--complete with the punch-drunk pug (Wm Bendix there, Mickey Shaughnessy here). This one tries to hide its origins by loading up on subplots, taking on in addition to romance sports writing, boxing, Broadway, fashion design, and Damon Runyon's world of gangsters. Toooooo much, it does none of them well and they stumble over one another. The gangster angle is especially clumsy and intrusive. The subplot that does work is the ex-partners subplot, which adds the single bright spot in the whole thing: Dolores Gray, who steals the flick without half trying. It doesn't help that Peck and Bacall appear to be 4th choices for their roles. Neither is a good fit--Peck plays the kind of liar and conman William Holden could get away with easily, but Peck is just too staunch and upright. You end up disliking him for being so dishonest. Bacall plays a rather ditzy flake, with the same problem--she's just too solid and down-to-earth to carry it off, and ends up mugging. It's just plain embarrassing to watch her fly off the handle. Chemistry? None. Must've been a terrible year for stories and screenplays if this manipulative junk won an Oscar.

Conceived as an urbane, lifestyle-envy vehicle for wide screens, it's not much more. But it's a handsome production made with more care than it might have been. It's surprisingly modern despite the curious narration device. Minelli mines some of his favorite elements from previous work. The behind-the-scenes soundstages and equipment from The Bad and the Beautiful, become a Dolores Gray TV production here. Revealing the machinery is a much more modern & compelling technique, than filming it straight. I have never understood the appeal of Gregory Peck at all. But here he's in his prime and he's a good clothes horse. His hungover point-of-view shot of the sky over Beverly Hills made me laugh out loud. A scene in which he's somewhere he shouldn't be, and an awful pet dog refuses to comply is pretty funny. Bacall playing 'girly' as the fifties demanded is a stretch, but she's better here than in the laugh-free 'How to Marry a Millionaire' which can't spare her even a second to be human. A punch-drunk lout named Maxie who sleeps with his eyes open, reminds me of several other lunkhead roles (Aldo Ray in Pat and Mike) but mostly of Spinner in 'Death to Smoochy.'The opening narration which structures the rather formless movie, and sets up the brouhaha over a notorious incident in Boston, is not matched by the actual incident when it arrives (it's pretty trivial). The theme music wears out it's welcome at about the half hour mark. Around chapter 29 I was ready for things to conclude but there were still ten chapters to go. (!!!!) I get more enjoyment from a second tier Minelli movie than his big hits (An American in Paris, Gigi). D.W. a virtual carbon copy of the Brittany Murphy/Ashton Kutcher vehicle 'Just Married' where a sports schmo marries better than expected. And I prefer it to the similar Tracy/Hepburn vehicle 'Woman of the Year.' Bogart must have been dying as Bacall worked on this.