Sunday, June 03, 2012

Movie review - "Woman Hater" (1948) *1/2

Maybe I'm being mean with the rating but this was very hard going. Stewart Granger wanted to play comedy and he does okay - he clearly tries, even if he was no Kenneth More - but it's a lousy story and he doesn't have chemistry with Edwige Feuillere. 

Granger is a lord who hates women, thinking they're dumb, and hears that movie star Feuillere is sick of men - so he sets out to seduce her for a bet. It's the sort of silly concept that would probably get green lit today, done without romance, warmth, charm or sexiness. The gimmick has Granger pretend to be... wait for it... an estate manager. What sort of impersonation is that? Why not be a butler or gangster or something with a bit of contrast?

Nicholas Phipps wrote the script (from a story by Alec Coppel) and although he specialised in light entertainment any breeziness is killed by the players and Terence Young (a miscast director if there ever was one). Granger falls into some mud on horseback, the two leads get drunk together, Feuillere pretends to drown not once but twice, there are wacky elderly servants who have their own shenanigans. 

If set in period, with proper light comedians, and in colour, this might have worked, but as it is here, it's very hard going.

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