In The Family Way-Gary Cooper’s Casanova Brown

 

 

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

DVD Review

Casanova Brown, starring Gary Cooper, 1944

 

In the modern cinema no social subject matter from transgender issues to various drug additions and family problems is off limits. And whether the issue is done as a serious dramatic effort or as a comedy sketch no one is “shocked” by whatever is on the screen (and if one is then the solution is to avert your eyes, walk out of the theater, or sent the DVD back). Sometimes looking at the old classic black and white romantic comedies movies which were usually done as “feel good” epics and skirted the tough social issue as much as possible you forget that every once in a while they actually dealt with serious subject matter that you would not have thought would have made it pass the producer’s or studio’s chopping block. Take the film under review, the romantic comedy Casanova Brown which is a slapstick way deals with gender issues, adoption, bigamy, marriage as an institution, science vs. the occult, and, well, the correct most up to date way to bring up baby (circa 1944).      

See this professor, well, writer anyway, Casanova Brown (played by lanky, laconic Gary Cooper usually seen in serious stuff like facing down gunslingers and the mob in High Noon, setting things right in Washington, D.C., or taking up the fight in the International Brigades in Spain, and a little romance on the side, in the film adaptation of Hemingway’s Farewell To Arms), all Midwest naiveté in tack goes off the rails when he, as will happen to anybody, goes to New York City and gets married to some Mayfair swell co-ed, Isabel (played by classic 1940s girl next door Teresa Wright),  in a whirlwind romance. The marriage does not take hold once Casanova pulls the hammer down on Isabel’s mother’s reliance on astrology and other occult methods for running their lives. They split up, that marriage is annulled, and Casanova heads back to the Midwest to try to marry a willowy blonde who also comes from wealth (and a dingbat ne’er-do-well gold-digger father)  

Then things start getting interesting since on the very eve of his marriage to willowy blonde, Madge by name, he gets information that a baby is to be born in Chicago and he needs to get there. As it turned out Isabel and Casanova might have split up by they were doing some fooling around before then since Isabel got pregnant and by the time Casanova gets to Chicago he is the father to a bouncing baby girl. A girl whom Isabel, now not married but a mother, not a good thing in staid 1940s land, has put up for adoption. Once Casanova gets a look at the baby though all his paternal, hell, maybe maternal instincts come out and he is daffy for the little one.

 

Not just daffy though but also determined to not have his baby adopted by some strangers. So like any good father he kidnaps the baby and hides out in a hotel where everybody except the police is looking for him. In the process he is also, as a good professor, man of science, and rational thinker a good mother to the child looking up all the then current literature on bringing up baby. But the heat was on so he decided to marry a hotel housekeeper (the called maids) to be able to keep the child. Naturally, in the end after all this is a romantic comedy, Casanova and Isabel get back together and all is right with the world and baby will grow up to be part of the generation of ‘68 who tried to turn the world upside down, and lost.

Now let’s see if you were paying attention. The baby was not illegitimate, Casanova did not commit bigamy, twice (to Madge or the hotel maid), and the stars were all aligned for them, occult mother or not. Now about that kidnapping charge. You know this is a 1940s film so you know very well no charges were brought. If you like screwball comedies this one will make you laugh, and scratch your head.