It's a Wonderful World (1939)

If I tell you that this film stars James Stewart and if you look at the title quickly, you might think I am about to review "It's a Wonderful Life" which is one of the all-time great American movies and one of my and a lot of other people's favourites.  This is a horse of a different colour, as they say, but still an amusing example of the screwball genre.  Its credentials are impeccable: written by Ben Hecht and Herman J. Mankiewicz, directed by W.S. Van Dyke.  It's the story of fearless private eye Stewart who attempts to prevent his client being falsely convicted of murder and who is sentenced to jail on a trumped-up charge.  En route to pokey he escapes and aided by a scatty poetess, he eventually proves his and his client's innocence.  So why isn't this picture better known?  Well for a start Stewart's co-star here is Claudette Colbert, who has proved herself an able comedienne in other movies, but with whom he has virtually no chemistry.  (Very parenthetically, it always strikes me that her head is far too big for her body!)  Secondly the supporting cast while able only includes Guy Kibbee as the sort of character actor guaranteed to enliven his scenes, while the remainder -- mainly playing dumb cops -- are definitely second-tier.  Yet it is always a pleasure seeing the young Stewart and his turn as a misogynistic, money-grabber is an amusing alternative to his usual persona.