Four’s a Crowd *** (1938, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles) – Classic Movie Review 11,904

Director Michael Curtiz’s 1938 American romantic comedy film Four’s a Crowd stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell and Patric Knowles.

Four’s a Crowd is a fun if perhaps not quite fizzy enough Errol Flynn comedy with the screen’s favourite swashbuckler as a PR man having to deal with a rich, difficult client, tycoon John Dillingwell (Walter Connolly), while falling for his granddaughter, Lorri (Olivia de Havilland), the fiancée of young newspaper owner Pat Buckley (Patric Knowles), whose reporter is Jean Christy (Rosalind Russell).

Flynn is no Cary Grant, but he is an amiable presence and his comic timing is better than might have been expected and it is certainly a step up from 1937’s The Perfect Specimen. De Havilland, Russell and Knowles are all good value, giving expert turns.

The loveable support cast brings a boost, but it exposes Flynn’s limitations. Also in the cast are Walter Connolly, Hugh Herbert, Melville Cooper, Franklin Pangborn, Herman Bing, Margaret Hamilton, Joseph Crehan, Joe Cunningham, Dennie Moore, Gloria Blondell, Charles Trowbridge, and Spencer Charters.

It is sweetly handled by Curtiz (Casablanca), who allowed principal photography to go 12 days over schedule but still managed to bring the film in $12,000 under budget.

It is written by Casey Robinson and Sig Herzig from a story by Wallace Sullivan, apparently based on the career of pioneering public relations man Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934), who worked for the Rockefeller family, the American Red Cross and the Nazi regime. Shortly before his death in 1934, the US Congress was investigating his work in Nazi Germany on behalf of the company IG Farben, the chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate.

It is the fourth of nine films that Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland star in together.

It was released on 4 August 1938 in the US.

It runs 92 minutes.

The cast are Errol Flynn as Bob Lansford, Olivia de Havilland as Lorri Dillingwell, Rosalind Russell as Jean Christy, Patric Knowles as Pat Buckley, Walter Connolly as John P Dillingwell, Hugh Herbert as Silas Jenkins, Melville Cooper as butler Bingham, Franklin Pangborn as Preston, Herman Bing as barber Herman, Margaret Hamilton as housekeeper Amy, Joseph Crehan as butler Pierce, Joe Cunningham as Ed Young, Gloria Blondell as secretary Gertrude, Carole Landis as secretary Myrtle, Dennie Moore, Charles Trowbridge, and Spencer Charters.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,904

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