Honeymoon in Bali *** (1939, Fred MacMurray, Madeleine Carroll, Allan Jones, Akim Tamiroff) – Classic Movie Review 8962

Director Edward H Griffith’s 1939 Paramount Pictures screwball comedy music romance movie Honeymoon in Bali quickly reunites Madeleine Carroll and Fred MacMurray, the stars of the same year’s hit Cafe Society, along with its director, producer Jeff Lazarus and writer Virginia Van Upp.

Carroll plays the cool as a cucumber heroine Gail Allen, who wants to succeed in business as manager of a Fifth Avenue shop without being married, but rich Bali socialite ‘Willie’ Burnett (MacMurray) and Eric Sinclair (opera singer Allan Jones) have other ideas. Willie visits New York City, meets, falls for and proposes to Gail. But she rejects Willie, so he goes home to Bali, but then she changes her mind…

The stars twinkle and the pace is frantic, but the material remains resolutely featherweight, drifting away through a lack of real wit and funny lines or knowledge of how best to develop the premise, based on an original story by Grace Sartwell Mason and Katharine Brush. But there is fun and pleasure to be found here none the less.

The stars’ popularity made it another hit, and they are charming, but it is Akim Tamiroff who steals the show as Tony the Window Cleaner. Jones gets just the one tune to sing, O Paradis from the opera L’ Africaine, other than his rendition of Happy Birthday to You.

Also in the cast are Helen Broderick, Osa Massen, Astrid Allwyn, Carolyn Lee, John Qualen, Monty Woolley, Bennie Bartlett, Georgia Caine and William B Davidson.

Honeymoon in Bali [Are Husbands Necessary?] is directed by Edward H Griffith, runs 95 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Virginia Van Upp, based on an original story by Grace Sartwell Mason and Katharine Brush, is shot in black and white by Ted Tetzlaff, is produced by William LeBaron (executive producer) and Jeff Lazarus, is scored by Victor Young and Friedrich Hollaender, and is designed by Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8962

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