Movie Videos: : Reviews of feature films new on video this weekend (unless otherwise noted.)
- Share via
*** “Once Upon a Honeymoon.” Nostalgia Merchant. $19.95.
Leo McCarey’s political films are a pretty odd lot--and this 1942 wartime comedy is one of the oddest. Ginger Rogers, married to secret Hitler-agent Walter Slezak, has a European honeymoon, and each country they visit quickly falls to the Nazis; they’re pursued--in both patriotic and amatory spirit--by dimpled radio commentator Cary Grant. McCarey mixes sober anti-Fascist scenes with screwball romantic bits, which the cast handles expertly. (Grant’s tailor bit, slyly taking Rogers’ measurements, is a gem.) Yet if the mixture doesn’t jell, there’s something fascinating about the way it falls apart: A melancholy undertone throughout suggests the sadness beneath this great comic director’s improvisatory joie de vivre.
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
