战地新娘

A post-WWII Howard Hawks screwball comedy transpires in the Allied-occupied Germany, Cary Grant plays a French Army Captain Henri Rochard, who is teamed up with American Lieutenant Catherine Gates (Sheridan) in his last mission before bowing out of military service once and for all.

It starts as a typical ill-matched pair reluctantly bundled together (even sharing the same bed one evening), who are constantly at each other’s throatsthrough comedy of errors, more often than not, at Henry’s expense, but, improbable to audience, a budding romantic is bound to emerge from both sides and by the end of their task, they are going to tie the knot. Honestly, the first half is very pleasurable with Grant adopts his tried-and-tested winning formula to juggle goofy, loosey-goosey innocuousness with snit-driven prolixity, meanwhile a proactive Ann Sheridan pulls no punch to prove that as a woman, her Catherine is no lesser to any masculine peer of hers, she can operate a spanking vehicle as competent as fast-tracking their mission.

In truth, it is this conformity-defying, role-swapping gender politics that gingers up the film right out of the box, however, in the second half, when the narrative is mired in overwrought red tapes, only to put the newly weds in the quagmire of a repeatedly deferred marriage consummation, and laboriously plays up the same source of amusement that Henri must apply as a war bride in order to be emigrated to USA as Catherine’s spouse, the film’s allure starts to pall, and its objectionable ethnocentric overtone doesn’t help either. When the plot reaches that mane-clipping, nurse-impersonating climax, it only leaves a first-time viewer gobsmacked, not by the plan’s wits but the whole idiocy which Hawks condones, maxing out Cary Grant’s belabored discomfiture but largely relegating Ann Sheridan on the sideline, an utter betrayal to its promising premise.

Another Golden Age Hollywood crowdpleaser doesn’t come through the test of time, as at one point Henri jests that woman is, au contraire, not the weaker gender to man since they are blessed with more sleep, the joke is in fact on the film and Hawks himself, a blatant tokenism in addressing gender equality, but cranked out inside a masculine hothouse, it is the same old blarney that now borders on offense.

referential films: Hawks’ BALL OF FIRE (1941, 7.5/10), BRINGING UP BABY (1938, 7.4/10), Billy Wilder’s A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948, 6.8/10),

就是喜欢加里格兰特，哪怕这个人现实中掩盖着怎样的秘密，就是喜欢银幕上的他——潇洒，优雅，深情里带着点儿小小的幽默。而当在本片里看到被化妆得怪怪的加里格兰特时，真是觉得新鲜好笑。
影片前半段讲的是男女主角出外执行任务，笑料相对集中，比如摩托车挎斗掉下来啊，看不清路灯上的牌子呀，门把手掉下来啊，最喜欢那个铁路护栏上升的笑料，从来没见过，可惜现在都是横向运动的栅栏门了，不能再使用这笑料了。
影片后半段笑料少了一些，从两人结婚到一起到美国，基本上都是跟繁琐不合理的制度相伴的，讽刺力度有了，但看起来有一点烦人。好在临近结尾处出现了格兰特的女人扮相，足够可笑，但是不用细想就会发现这故事极不合情理，那些个曾见过男主角男装的人怎么会认不出这丑女人呢？同为男扮女装，这故事显然比《热情似火》差得很远。
很喜欢女主角，发现那时电影里的女性角色都具有非常独立的人格，工作能力也很强，反倒是如今影视剧里的女人都比较软弱，或许是女性的社会地位不必再用女权革命来强调了，亦或许是发觉过了这么多年，男性依然是主导，不如就迎合了吧。