So this is another one of my old-ass musicals. It didn't have a lot of music in it but it was pretty good. This is about a millionaire who gets cold feet at his wedding, so his golddigger fiancee has him committed to an insane asylum. Because apparently in the 40's it was that easy. While in the looney bin, he meets Col. Carroway, a legitimate nut, who helps him escape. They get picked up by a traveling circus run by a plucky gorgeous blonde and wacky shenanigans ensue. The millionaire learns how to woo a woman without a checkbook and the blonde gets a handsome millionaire. Everybody's happy!
This is another film starring Adolphe Menjou (he played Col. Carroway in the above picture). It's one of those almost-too-well-written old films where the plot is so convoluted that if you miss a couple of minutes, you've lost the thread of the whole thing. It's almost Ocean's 11 level of conman shell-games as a father tries to help his son win back his new wife's inheritance after her jealous ex convinces her mother to lose it all on a crooked roulette wheel. Meanwhile all the two newlyweds want to do is spend some "quality time" with each other for the two days of their honeymoon before the guy has to ship back out with the Navy but they keep getting interrupted by Menjou's crazy-ass schemes. Pola Negri co-stars as Menjou's opera diva wife/sugar momma. She's a Wagnerian soprano, which makes this only slightly a musical. Now don't get me wrong. I like the opera. But Lohengrin just isn't the right soundtrack for zany madcap comedy. You need some Barber of Seville up in that piece.
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