The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)

Playwright George S. Kaufman's and Moss Hart's brilliant script gets a good screenplay and some good screen play in the film adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner, a wicked light comedy reprising Monte Wooley as Sheridan Whiteside (a character deliberately modeled on the acerbic Alexander Woolcott after a similar overnight stay at Hart's own estate). I always love an intelligent, fast-paced, conversational script and this one rarely disappoints with its ripostes, bon mots, invectives, and satiric rips back and forth -- usually from the direction of Whiteside to anyone else in the room (or leaving it) but quite often from the reverse direction via his cousin and secretary of 10 years, Maggie Cutler (Bette Davis in an entirely satisfactory if uncharacteristic role). Whiteside is in his element when he's ordering everyone around, from the ball-bearing magnate homeowner and his midwestern socialite wife (who seems to be channeling a warbly Glinda the Good Witch) to their marriageable daughter and son to the long-suffering Nurse Preen (Mary Wickes, who gets the worst of his digs) and the homeowners' cook and maid (who come to love the lug). (At the end of the movie, Whiteside offers them jobs and they gladly accept. "They've been with me for 10 years!" laments the lady of the house. "I'll commute their sentence," Whiteside replies.) The handsome local newspaper editor (Richard Travis) plays a major role, causing Whiteside to simper gleefully at the mischief he conceives for his own purposes. A gold-digging actress (Ann Sheridan) plays her part in his trap until Whiteside gets a final glint in his eye as to what to do about it (and her). Whiteside's friend, an equally mischievous entertainer named Banjo (Jimmy Durante), never looked so young. Like other catty scripts from Kaufman in the 1930s and 1940s (such as The Marx Brothers), this production is conversationally spry and steadfastly sharp. It's entertaining and funny, however, it feels light as a trifle by the time it's through. I'd say it's too intelligent to be a popcorn muncher (or you'd miss the clever dialog) but too calorically (comedically) light to stick to one's mental or emotional ribs. It's better than adequate but I can't say I deeply like it (as much as others that I do), which leaves me at 3.5 stars.