It All Came True (1940)

I was about to sit down and write my reactions to "The Weather Man" (2005) which I watched last night, as depressing a waste of time for a mainstream movie as imaginable.  That film does have its fans, but the spectacle of Nicholas Cage playing an overpaid but unqualified TV weather reporter while the world around him falls apart -- his disapproving Pulitzer-prize winning dad (Michael Caine) is dying of cancer, his wife has a new love interest, and his kids have their own problems -- left me feeling pretty grim; although possibly originally intended as a comedy, it was anything but.  So it was time to cheer myself up and the above golden oldie really did the trick.

I had forgotten the happiness with which so many pictures of this period glow and this minor example, long forgotten by modern viewers is a fine instance.  A Warner Brothers flick from the period when Humphrey Bogart was still playing largely unredeemed gangsters, it gives him a chance to expand his persona to show both humour and ultimately humanity.  On the lam from a shooting at his nightclub, he blackmails pianist Jeffrey Lynn into letting him hide out at the theatrical boarding house run by his mother (Jessie Busley) and her wonderful Irish cook, Una O'Connor.  Here too lives Lynn's childhood sweetheart, Ann Sheridan -- the original "oomph" girl given the chance here to exercise her pretty impressive vocal chords -- and a collection of theatrical relics, including Zasu Pitts of silent era dramatic fame, but given a fine bit of comic business here, and the wonderful character actor Felix Bressart, playing a retired magician called The Great Boldoni, whose act is continuously and amusingly undermined by a very talented performing dog.

This is just a small sample of the wonders which this film bestows.  Since the ladies risk losing the house through unpaid bills, Bogart who is being overly mothered by the two old biddies decides that they should turn the place into a nightclub called "The Roaring 90s".  Miraculously the drawing room and dining room expand some tenfold and the mixture of old-fashioned atmosphere and entertainment turns the place into a money-making hit; we are also treated to some wonderful period entertainment from singing waiters, a barbershop quartet, and a high-kicking chorus of old dears -- long before this became a comic staple later on in the century.  Yes, it's all something of a fairy tale and even Bogie is redeemed as the cops finally cart him off.  Oh, happy days! 

Tags: Humphrey Bogart, Anne Sheridan, It All Came True