Customer Reviews

Once upon a Honeymoon

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is not the original edition used for general theatrical release. It has been "cleansed" by somebody for God-knows-what-reason.

When seen in the original version, including all of Grant's speeches (the Peace of Holland, a Peace of France, etc), the result is pretty funny, despite some slow moments.

This is an important piece of pre-WWII anti-fascist movie making from the 1940's. Ginger Grant is her usual lovely self, while Grant tries desperately but nearly fails in the underplayed hero category.

Overall, this would be better if some dunderheaded editor would not have cut the film so darn much!

This is the Original Studio Version and not the one that was released to the general public and shown on TV since the 1950's. Many of the famous speeches are different; weakening the impact of the film. The speech Grant made about Germany wants Peace, a Peace of Poland, a Peace of Holland, a Peace of France is missing entirely. It is too bad that this is the version that is currently available as, I believe, the other is more powerful.

Admittedly, this film has plenty of American propaganda, but that doesn't really detract from your enjoyment of it. Grant is charming, to say the least. The serious subject matter mixes well with the comedy. And, as always, Leo McCarey made a romance that makes you cry (watch for the poem that Grant writes for Rogers). I haven't seen the original, but this one is damn good.

This is a great DVD with wonderful quality. A romantic comedy yes but also has espionage as the backdrop. Cary Grant shines and Ginger Rogers is just so cute as the love interest. The plot definitely has substance! Highly Recommend!

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This is an unfortunate little film. I say this not because it attempts to use the Blitzkreig as a platform for romantic comedy, but because it takes itself too seriously and always at the wrong time. The end result is an uncomfortable mixture of tensions all at odds with each other. What started out as a potentially interesting and fun film with a touch of danger somehow degenerated into a mixed mush of comedy, wartime intrigue, and suspense.

The cast is stellar. Grant is in top form as newspaper reporter and radio commentator O'Toole. Ginger Rogers is equally good, and consistant throughout as the showgirl turned baroness O'Hara. I also liked Walter Slezak as the Baron.

That made the film more frustrating for me; I liked the cast and most of the comedy, but the juxtaposition of a screwball comedy with an Hitchcockian wartime suspenser just doesn't work. I think it could have been pulled off if the producers had held back a bit on the wartime danger and the brutality of camps and spy murders. Unfortunately, the producers were trying to tell two stories at once, and that doomed the film to being unworkable. It really is too bad that they couldn't have simply just gone one way or the other; wartime suspense drama, or wartime romantic comedy with a dash of intrigue.

As for the criticism of the portrayal of "death camps", I think this is a bit unfair. My impression was that the characters never actually reach a camp per se, but rather a staging area. A minor difference, to be sure, but regardless of where they actually are, Americans are being shown here in a rather unsubtle fashion that the same thing happening in Europe could happen down on Maple Street, in Anywhere, USA.

Bottom line, I think the film is worth a viewing, but you may not want to actually own it. The film is ultimately just bizzare, and overall borders on bad taste historically. Too bad, because it could have been memorable and magic.

'Once Upon A Honeymoon' would almost be as reviled as DW Griffith's 'Birth Of A Nation' if it hadn't been swept under the carpet by an embarrassed posterity. Dubbed an unintentional 'Springtime for Hitler', the film follows reporter Cary Grant's attempt to persuade social-climbing showgirl Ginger Rogers that her aristocratic husband Walter Slezak is Hitler's right-hand man, paving the way for the Fuhrer's invasions. The complaint is not just that 1942 wasn't the best time for a comedy about the Nazis, but that the subject matter - Hitler's march through Europe and the systematic destruction of democratic governments; the assassination of patriots; the Jewish death camps - are never appropriate subjects for comedy. The concentration camp sequence is especially notorious, with a well-dressed and well-fed Grant and Rogers mistaken for Jews, forced to lie in a beautiful-looking wasteland where traditional Jewish laments are beautifully sung, while they wait for the American consul to rescue them. You know, THOSE concentration camps (in fairness, what other Hollywood film of the period even acknowledged their existence?).

These typically myopic judgements of the politically correct obscure the real interest of this film. As a romantic comedy, the film disapppoints, especially with these talents - the lines and situations are never funny in the way Lubitsch's similarly taste-dodging masterpiece 'To Be Or Not To Be' is - it's up to the stars' immense charm to keep you going, and their interaction, all moues and double takes, becomes extremely affecting. They guide us into the strangeness of the film, its genuinely shocking mix of moods. There is no Hollywood film I can think of that mixes romantic comedy with the 'straight' staging of a brutal murder - the film is not just an index of Hollywood blindness or naivete, but a brilliant record of how confused Hollywood were at the time, anguishing over how to represent the war, Nazism, the threat to America, the realities of genocide, the very real fear of global anhilation, while making affirmative entertainment for a popular audience. These destructive, unresolvable tensions in what is supposed to be a simplistic propaganda film make it fascinating today, as do the intimations of Hitchcock's great masterpiece, 'Notorious' - Grant as a morally ambiguous patriot; a wife encouraged to risk her life spying on her Nazi husband.

This movie was made before the US entered WW 2. It has some light comedy/romance, but drama/suspense as well, revealing the real threat of Nazi Germany and their plan to take over the world,with a reference to concentration camps. Grant and Rogers were versatile actors in drama and comedy,which both are displayed in this movie.
Story Line: Rogers plays a gold digging American in Austria with her cap set to marry a rich government official.Grant plays an American reporter trying to get the scoop on this guy, when he sees a pattern emerge that every country this Official visits as a good will ambassador for Hitler,Hitler soon invades that country.
Spies, intrigue, romance/comedy, suspense ensues!

This is a delightful movie about the early days of WWII with Cary Grant and Ginger Rodgers as a pair caught up in the early german victories in Europe and the bombing of Warsaw. There is a lot of humor with the story of the treachery and double crosses that some of the earlier successes of the Germans were won with. Worth the see.

this is a charming little movie with very good acting. Ginger Rogers is gorgeous, and good ol' Cary Grant is swell. Mostly recommended to old movie buffs, but some of my non old movie-lover friends found it quite enjoyable.

This is a pale imitation of the film released to the general public and shown on TV since the 1950's. I was very disappointed to find many of the most famous speeches removed, weakening, and destroying the impact of the film. I can not recommend this version for these reasons. Don't be fooled by the Original Studio version. It is not as good as the one most people remember seeing.