Way too Late at the Movies: I Was a Male War Bride and The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw

I Was A Male War Bride. Yes, another Cary Grant film.

First, I begin to suspect that Cary Grant only plays Cary Grant, though his over the top Cary Grant in "Arsenic and Old Lace" is a delight.

Here, he's very much Cary Grant not even pretending to be a French military officer. The story is based on the true escapades of a Belgian national who was a "male war bride," so they strove for a little verisimilitude in the film. It's billed as a comedy -- and I read it was Grant's favorite comedy in which he starred.

I have mixed reactions. I mean, it was a fine film, but a little bland. I had a hard time telling the female actors apart, so there were a few times I thought he was going to be caught monkeying around with another girl, but no. Same girl, just in a different outfit or setting. That's on me, or maybe on the Army style that had them all looking alike. Or something.

Also, he encounters a GI from Brooklyn, and they make a big deal of it, because you de facto had to have a GI from Brooklyn in your war picture to make it authentic or something.

They do an admirable job of showing the military tangle of an unexpected relationship trying to fit into the pigeonholing paperwork, but the film was just a bit too straight-laced for it to work as a broad comedy.

As for The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, it was interesting.

Honestly, it's not that funny -- but it's better than this trailer paints it to be.

A pseudo-spaghetti western filmed in Spain by a British outfit. It felt like a western, though there were weird little British affectations -- the tea brought by the ladies was coffee, but it was all done as if it were tea service, particularly the spot where there was tea involved. And the overall score -- not really fitting a western, particularly one trying to be a comic western. It's like everyone knew they were making a western, but only a few of those involved actually spoke the language, so to say.

It's a nice fish out of water story, common with westerns made in any nation. The natives are a little cringey, but no more cringey than in other films. Watch for the scene taking place in the settler's cabin, with two actors who would be at home in any western. That was the highlight for me.