Review of Idiot's Delight (1939) by Armand E — 02 Jul 2004

This is the kind of "classic" film that gives classic films a bad name. The second painful clunker from 1939 (often named the greatest cinematic year ever) in a row, this time an insufferable romantic comedy/message film adapted from a play by Robert Sherwood.

Sherwood, who won the Pulitzer for the play this film was adapted from, is a playwright who has mercifully fallen out of favor, as his long-winded dialogue that he packs full of obvious meaning is hard to bear for any amount of time.

Clark Gable gives this film his best shot, and comes away with the least damage done (his gangly song-and-dance rendition of "Puttin' in the Ritz' is a charmer)- but poor Norma Shearer is saddled with a character who attempts to make a sermon out of every line of dialogue, and she plays it with so with such conviction that it's almost painful to watch her big doe-eyes well up with earnest tears. I guess her reincarnation as a Russian countess is supposed to be some kind of parody of the Great Garbo, but it's painfully embarrasing to watch. And by the time pacifist Burgess Meredith shows up to make the already obvious anti-war message even more obvious. I nearly cheered when he was carted away and promptly shot.

Director Clarence Brown seems to be trying to give this turkey some kind of sophistication and spark, but everything is so deadly serious and dreary that there's no saving it. It dies a slow, painful death, that we as the audience are mercilessly forced to witness.

One of the worst films I've seen in recent memory.