Customer Reviews

Casanova Brown [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This film stars Gary Cooper as a small town college professor and Teresa Wright as the society woman he meets and immediately falls head over heels in love with while on a trip to New York. He's trying to get a book published about his ancestor, the notorious lover Casanova. Her mother however who consults the astrology charts for every decision she makes tells the newlyweds that their marriage is doomed to fail. Cooper disagrees and a heated argument insues between the family which eventually leads to an anullment. Nine months later back in his home town Cooper is set to marry Anita Louise whose father played by Frank Morgan (the wizard from the Wizard of Oz) is adamantly against the marriage. Not because he dislikes Cooper but because he dislikes marriage! He turns in a very funny performance as the cranky father of the bride. On the day before their wedding Cooper receives a cryptic letter from a maternity hospital in Chicago saying they need to speak with him. He recounts the tale of his week long marriage to a woman in New York to Morgan and he encourages him to go to Chicago and see what's going on.

There's a very funny bit once he gets to the hospital and they escort him to a room and tell him to undress. He's quite perplexed seeing as how it's a maternity hospital and he's a man. They run him through a battery of tests as other expectant father's watch in disbelief while they wheel him around on a hospital bed. It turns out that Wright has had a baby girl and Cooper is the father. She plans to put her up for adoption and they ran all the tests on him to get his medical information. At first he is very surprised to know that he has a child but once he sees her he's completely smitten and also very upset that she will be given away. He can't talk Wright out of it so out of desparation he dresses like a doctor and kidnaps his little girl.

After checking into a hotel he enlists a bellman and a maid to help him take care of his daughter. He knows very little about babies but with the help of some books he gets the hang of it pretty quickly. My favorite scene is where he mistakes her rapid weight gain (which is normal for newborns) as a sign of a glandular problem. He sits on the bed looking at his daughter and very sweetly whispers to her 'daddy will love you no matter how big you get'. I don't want to give away the ending but it is a happy one.

The movie was released in 1944 and I can imagine it was quite shocking to see a single man taking care of a baby. Cooper even says in one scene how unfair it is that a man can run the country but they won't let him take care of his own child unless he's married. This is a very sweet and funny movie and I would encourage you to give it a look.

I had heard of this film but never got the chance to see it until recently on TCM. What a delightful film! I had forgotten that Gary Cooper made another film with the beautiful and talented Teresa Wright. She was not only beautiful, but made you feel like you were 'home' whenever she is on the screen. This is a sentimental film but also very funny- I will be buying the DVD so I can add this adorable film to my collection of classic films. What a pleasure to watch a film that actually has a storyline you can follow without the usual sex scenes in movies today, and best of all no profanity! When Teresa Wright's character has the baby you know Gary Cooper is the father, but we didn't have to see the conception to know how the baby got there....well...what a novel idea! Not showing an intimate moment between a man and a woman and we actually get it! Think about it...do we really need to see all that nonsense in the present day movies to get the point??? I think not! This is what makes these films timeless- Hopefully the movie studios will continue to release these wonderful classic films.

Gary Cooper gets maternal in CASANOVA BROWN, Sam Wood's 1944 comedy about the lengths a divorced father will go in order to remain close to his child. Co-starring Teresa Wright and Anita Louise, this is sadly one of the least-remembered titles from Cooper's long and varied screen career.

Casanova Brown (Gary Cooper), a mild-mannered scholar--and apparent distant relative of the renowned lover--is looking forward to settling down with lovely Madge Ferris (Anita Louise) until he receives the most curious letter from a Chicago maternity hospital. Casa's mind casts back to when he married college girl Isabel Drury (Teresa Wright), a marriage that was quickly annulled after Casa's disastrous first meeting with the in-laws, which resulted in their mansion being burnt to the ground! Evidently, Casa and Isabel's relationship produced a baby girl--and now unmarried Isabel needs to put her up for adoption. Horrified Casa smuggles his daughter out of the hospital, determined to raise her; and all hell breaks loose when, after Casa's secret cover is finally blown, both Madge and Isabel descend on the bewildered new father!

CASANOVA BROWN was quite possibly a very risqué film when it was first released. I can't imagine the movie enjoying a smooth passage through the censors office. Dealing candidly with the subject of unwed mothers, bachelor fathers and possibly even bigamy, CASANOVA BROWN walks a very fine line. The script by Nunnally Johnson (based on the play "Accidental Father" by Floyd Dell) zips along at a good pace and showcases Frank Morgan, playing Madge's gold-digging father, in one of his greatest performances. Sadly Teresa Wright fades into the background playing a very weak young woman who'd rather break up her marriage than leave her parents' bosom (her mother is played by talented Patricia Collinge, who also co-starred with Wright in the Hitchcock classic "Shadow of a Doubt" the previous year).

No extras but a solid transfer.

This is a great little movie with lots of humor, cute situations and terrific actors. If you are used to seeing Gary Cooper in his usual type of role, check this out for an unexpected treat!

I saw this movie quite some time ago and decided to buy it for my DVD collection. Gary Cooper is a fine actor, though usually in dramatic films. This one is comedy/drama and he is wonderful in it. Cooper plays a man about to be married when he receives a letter from a maternity hospital. Thinking is is but an advertisement for business, he calls the place but the number is disconnected. He remembers marrying briefly about 9 months ago and only spending the wedding night with his wife before the marriage is annulled. He goes to the maternity hospital and discovers he has a baby and it is about to be given up for adoption. What ensues is so very funny, both in the script and the realities of baby and childcare of the time.
As an aside: the character of Cooper's prospective father in law is absolutely hilarious!

I LOVED THIS DVD. I LOVE THE ACTORS AND ACTRESSES AND THE SHOW WAS EXCELLENT.

This film shows the classic Gary Cooper of that period. He handles the shy, quiet yet intelligence which won the hearts of moviegoers of the time. Teresa Wright and he have an unmistakable screen chemistry that adds to the overall plot of this movie.

Cas Brown: "I find myself in an extremely awkward position."

Let's plot it out: On the eve of his wedding, college professor Casanova "Cas" Brown (Cooper) receives an enigmatic letter from a Chicago maternity hospital. Before jetting to Chicago to see what the blazes is going on, Cas reveals to his prospective father-in-law that he had been briefly married less than a year ago, that marriage since then annulled. Arriving at the maternity hospital, Cas sees his adorable baby girl for the first time and falls in love with her. When he finds out that she's slated for adoption (with his ex-wife about to be re-married herself), he decides to make off with the baby.

Some trivia now. CASANOVA BROWN, released in 1944, is based on the play by Floyd Dell and Thomas Mitchell, which had already been adapted twice to cinema, in 1930 (starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) and in 1939 (starring Hugh Herbert), with both of those films titled LITTLE ACCIDENT. CASANOVA BROWN provides the second teaming of Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright, the first pairing being in the all-time 1942 classic The Pride of the Yankees (Anniversary Edition). Now CASANOVA BROWN isn't in the same league as PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, and, as a comedy, it pales in comparison to Cooper's Ball of Fire, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Along Came Jones, and even Love in the Afternoon. But it does have a few things going for it, not the least of which are the two leads Cooper and Wright.

Cooper comes with his patented low key acting style, and his natural "aw, shucks" charisma somehow carries him thru the wacky situations his character gets put into. Teresa Wright is typically sweet-natured and very lovely and simply looks radiant on camera. By the by, the Wizard of Oz himself, Frank Morgan, in his part of J.J. Ferris, an old, callous, and opinionated scoundrel and Cas's confidant, scores some smiles from me but also a bit of ill will. He handed his daughter Madge some pretty underserved shabby treatment there. Meanwhile, Anita Louise makes the most of her thankless role of Madge, and she does provide additional babe candy. But I felt bad for her. The movie's hook is also pretty cute. Actors may notoriousy not like working with babies, afraid that they might be upstaged by the young 'uns. But there's no doubt it's more a winning plot formula than not.

Um, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. CASANOVA BROWN isn't a bad flick, but there's a reason this isn't hailed as Cooper's showcase comedy film. Overall, the film offers mild-mannered humor and is merely a notch above your average picture, with the romantic angle more or less taking a back seat. It's not as funny as I'd hoped, although it does have its funny moments, most of these dealing with Cooper's antics as unsuspecting new pops. The funniest scene, though, may have been a funny flashback in which Cas meets Isabel's disapproving and horoscope-obsessed parents and then proceeds to burn down their $750,000 home. Inadvertently, of course.

Cas, by the way, is named after his ancestor, the original Casanova. That the movie doesn't take more advantage of this plot device seems a dang shame. But I guess it's hard to picture Cooper in the role of the seducer. He's a good looking dude, I guess, but his placid, straight-forward personality doesn't lend itself to such outrageous hijinks.

Star power and cute baby shenanigans drive CASANOVA BROWN, and I was glad enough that I saw this picture. One wonders, though, what Cary Grant or William Powell - actors with a decidedly lighter touch than Cooper - would've done in the role of Casanova Brown. That might be the difference between the comedy classic this could've been and a picture that is pleasant, occasionally amusing, and mildly risque for its time. Which is what this is.

This is a strange little movie.The tone is light,the performances likeable but the story (about a man who "steals" his ex-wife's newly-born baby) is in dubious taste.Part of the problem is the fact that the movie is composed of "chunks" rather than coherent scenes:there is a chunk of story dealing with Brown's impending marriage and then a chunk dealing with his immediate past,and then another featuring his abduction of "his" child,but these long sequences fail to bond together into a meaningful whole.Another problem has to do with the characterisations:Brown's fiance is never really anything more than a plot device,his ex is only barely drawn and his eccentric fatherly confidante is unbelievable.Cooper,however,is as intriguingly charming as ever,and there are moments of real humour,but,as a whole,the effect is disappointing.Students could probably use the theme to spark off a debate about "movies/comedies and good taste",and admirers of Gary Cooper will warm to his contribution,but not everyone will be satisfied with this as a straightforward light comedy.