The Man Who Came to Dinner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ann Sheridan, Bette Davis, Billie Burke, Jimmy Durante, Monty WoolleyBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Man Who Came to Dinner
Movie Review: Hilarious comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
The film version of Kaufman and Hart's hit Broadway comedy "The Man who Came to Dinner" is a first rate Warner Brother's production of 1941. While Monty Woolley gets third billing to Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan, clearly for box office reasons, the film centres around his ferrocious performance based on Alexander Woollcott.
The story is simple. An egocentric celebrity arrives in a small town in Ohio, fractures his hip on the icy steps outside the house of one of the town's emminent citizens, threatens to sue and moves in to recuperate. In doing so, he takes over the household with his entourage and the film follows the resultant mayhem. The film has an ensemble cast supporting Woolley and everyone has their moment. There are endless references to the "in crowd" of 1941 and the film requires numerous viewings to pick up all the one liners because the jokes are fast and furious. The direction is featureless and the film is static but it is the dialogue which counts so the unimaginative direction doesn't really matter.
Davis takes a supporting role as Woolley's secretary and demonstrates her claim that she did NOT always have to take centre stage if the script was good. She is funny and sardonic and in her romantic scenes, nobody could be as relaxed and comfortable as she was on the screen, almost convincing us that such a sophisticated woman could fall for a hick newspaper man, the handsome Richard Travis. Ann Sheridan is tart, sexy and devastatingly attractive as Lorraine Sheldon, said to be based on Gertrude Lawrence. She was filming "King's Row" at the same time and always said she did not care about this film because King's Row was much more important. Nevertheless, she certainly enhanced her stardom with this hilarious performance. All the others are terrific - Mary Wickes as the bewildered nurse, Billy Burke as the scatty mother, Jimmy Durante as Harpo Marx and Reginald Gardiner as Noel Coward etc etc. Special mention of Grant Mitchell as the harried father of the household, a superb foyle for Woolley's vitriol and with a memorable final moment in the film.
The print is excellent and the extras include the original trailer, with evidence of a scene cut from the film, a worthwhile short commentary and a terrific short containing Six Hits and a Miss harmonising "You gotta know how to dance", a song from the 1936 musical "Colleen" with the dance by Ruby Keeler and Paul Draper interpolated from that film.
It is fantastic that this film is finally available on DVD, whether as part of the Davis Collection Volume 2 or on its own.
Summary of The Man Who Came to Dinner
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