Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Casanova Brown Blu-ray Movie Review

One Man and a Baby.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 3, 2018

Thomas Mitchell remains one of the most instantly identifiable character actors from the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, having created such memorable characters as Doc Boone in Stagecoach (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Gerald O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life. Some indication of Mitchell’s versatility can be measured by the fact that he was the first actor to get three of the four “EGOT” trophies, an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony, missing out on a Grammy only perhaps because those awards came along toward the tail end of Mitchell’s life. (His beautiful and rather nicely varied speaking voice certainly could have qualified for a Grammy in my estimation had he made a spoken word album.) But maybe just a little hidden in Mitchell’s long list of credits is the fact that he was also a successful playwright, with one of his most notable hits being a 1928 farce he co-wrote called Little Accident, which ran for several months on Broadway and which not so coincidentally also employed Mitchell as one of the performers in the cast. Little Accident was itself based on a novel by Mitchell’s co- writer Floyd Dell entitled An Unmarried Father, a title which may remind some of a rather famous farce coming out of Paramount Pictures in 1944, Preston Sturges’ The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Little Accident was enough of a hit on the Great White Way that it was quickly optioned for a cinematic adaptation, though kind of oddly the first outing was apparently a French film called A Father Without Knowing It. The American film industry caught up a few years later with Little Accident, a low budget Universal opus starring Hugh Herbert in a farce that retained the play’s title but jettisoned at least some elements of its plot. Paramount, the studio that pushed the (kinda sorta) unmarried parent conceit with the aforementioned Betty Hutton - Eddie Bracken film, had also long been the studio home of Gary Cooper, but Cooper, perhaps seeing the handwriting on the wall, had not re-upped his “tour of duty” with Adolph Zukor’s organization in that same year of 1944 that The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek came out, and had instead set out as more of a freelancer, entering into a quasi-producing role with a nascent production entity called International Pictures. International decided to try another “at bat” with the Little Accident source material, with screenwriter Nunnally Johnson tasked with trying to tailor the material specifically toward Cooper’s singular talents. The result is a fitfully amusing farce which casts Cooper as the oddly named title character, who, like the male version of Hutton in the Sturges film, is supposedly an unmarried parent.

Casanova Brown has a number of undeniable laughs in its overly convoluted story, but it also has a number of plot holes and even structural artifices that tend to undercut the hilarity. The film begins with Casanova Brown (Gary Cooper) returning to his hometown in Illinois from a supposed vacation in New York. He’s met at the station by what appears to be his girlfriend, Madge Ferris (Anita Louise). Cas (as he’s called) is obviously unnerved by something that happened in the Big Apple, but the film quickly moves on to Cas attempting to ask Madge’s father, the imperious Mr. Ferris (The Wizard of Oz’s Frank Morgan, essaying the role I assume was played by Mitchell on the stage), for Madge’s hand in marriage. Mr. Ferris is a blowhard, but kind of weirdly he refuses to grant Cas’ request not due to any failing on Cas’ part, but indeed because he thinks his daughter Madge is a manipulative shrew and he doesn’t want Cas to suffer.

Nevertheless, the film segues forward a few months to reveal that Cas and Madge are about to be betrothed, until that is a mysterious letter from a maternity ward shows up requesting Cas to get in touch with them. It’s here that the film kind of comes to a sudden stop as Cas confides in Mr. Ferris, relaying courtesy of a flashback what exactly went down in New York a year or so ago. It turns out that Cas had met a beautiful young woman named Isabel Drury (Teresa Wright) and had more or less married her on the spot. Unfortunately for Cas, Isabel’s mother (Patricia Collinge) is a huge astrology follower and she is convinced the marriage will be a disaster. When Cas inadvertently burns down the expansive Drury mansion, things devolve quickly enough that Cas takes off in a huff and never sees Isabel again, learning sometime later that the marriage has been annulled.

Already Casanova Brown is on kind of tenuous comedic territory, and in fact it’s a kind of odd character for the typically upright and stalwart Cooper to play, though obviously this was done by design to slightly tweak his image. The upshot of all the craziness is that Cas takes off for Chicago, where the maternity ward is, to find out that Isabel has given birth and is giving the baby up for adoption. Cas has other plans, more or less kidnapping the tot and attempting to learn how to father the infant on the fly. Meanwhile, Madge is back at the altar more or less waiting, while Mr. Ferris attempts to ameliorate the situation in a none too winning way.

What should build to farcical heights of hilarity instead tends to lurch and stop, with some vignettes offering at least giggles, but others outstaying their welcome despite the film’s fairly brief running time. By the time Madge and Isabel are chasing down Cas along with a coterie of hangers on, and Cas is desperately attempting to wed a pediatric nurse in order to stave off child protective service sorts taking the baby, it’s all relentlessly silly and kind of forced.

There are some rather odd plot mechanics at play in this piece one way or the other, and even Johnson’s screenplay lacks a certain continuity in some aspects. To cite just one example, when Cas discusses his brief “marital fling” with Isabel in his confession to Mr. Ferris, it sounds like he alludes to the fact that he had already been engaged to Madge before, except — why then the scene (that is subsequent to these events) with Cas asking for Madge’s hand in marriage? But really the whole issue of Cas obviously having had a long standing relationship with Madge one way or the other, and then simply darting off with Isabel, only to more or less abandon her and take up with Madge (again more or less) where he left off, might be perceived as anti-heroic and/or swinish at the very least. The fact that Cas ends up ditching one of these two women again as the film comes to a close doesn’t exactly paint this character in the best light, despite the lightness of tone Cooper attempts to bring to the proceedings.

Casanova Brown Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Casanova Brown is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is another great looking restoration from ClassicFlix, which is repeatedly proving that "little" niche labels can handle vintage fare with care. I noticed no major instances of any age related wear and tear (though I wonder if the opening production company credit and closing The End card may have been recreated for this release). This is just a tad soft looking at times as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, and there are a number of slight variances in clarity and sharpness (aside from expected moments like optical dissolves), but generally speaking detail levels are quite pleasing, and elements like some natty herringbone patterns on some costumes resolve with commendable precision. Contrast is solid, and both blacks and gray scale look great. The one qualm I could see some videophiles having with this release is a relatively fine grain field, which is organic looking but a little hard to spot at times.

Casanova Brown Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Casanova Brown features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that isn't going to blow any audiophile's mind but which still delivers some surprisingly robust sounding music while having no problems delivering dialogue. The sonics of the track are just slightly boxy sounding, as befits its age, but there are no actual problems with dropouts or damage.

Casanova Brown Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the Blu-ray disc.

Casanova Brown Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Most of the big laughs in Casanova Brown come from Frank Morgan's inimitable delivery of his curmudgeonly lines (there's a great opening scene where you just hear the character savagely berating someone, and then the door opens and it turns out to be his very young grandson). The rest of the film is (not to pun too horribly, given its emphasis on a baby) labored. Fans of the cast may get a kick out of this nonetheless, and technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.