Love Crazy (1941 film)

Love Crazy is a 1941 screwball comedy film pairing William Powell and Myrna Loy as a couple whose marriage is on the verge of being broken up by the husband's old girlfriend and the wife's disapproving mother. This was their eleventh of fourteen films appearing together.[2]

Love Crazy
Theatrical film poster
Directed byJack Conway
Produced byPandro S. Berman
Screenplay byDavid Hertz
William Ludwig
Charles Lederer
StarringWilliam Powell
Myrna Loy
Gail Patrick
Jack Carson
Music byDavid Snell
CinematographyWilliam H. Daniels
Edited byBen Lewis
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • May 23, 1941 (1941-05-23) (United States)
Running time
99 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$889,000[1]
Box office$2 million[1]

Plot

Architect Steve Ireland (William Powell) and his wife Susan (Myrna Loy) eagerly look forward to their fourth wedding anniversary, but her mother Mrs. Cooper (Florence Bates) shows up and puts a damper on their eccentric and jokey plans for the evening; their personal recreation of a Baffin Island Inuit ritual, this year done backwards. She sends Steve downstairs to mail her insurance premium having sprained her foot.

He runs into his old girlfriend Isobel Kimble Grayson (Gail Patrick) and learns that she has just moved into the apartment building, one floor below. On the way up, the elevator gets stuck. While they are getting out, Steve is half-strangled and struck several times in the head becoming woozy. Isobel takes him to her apartment to recover where she plies him with numerous strong drinks. Though she is now also married, she makes it clear that she would not mind renewing their relationship, but Steve is hopelessly in love with his wife.

When he returns to his apartment in a disheveled state, he neglects to mention his encounter with Isobel but then it becomes evident in a way which looks bad for him; later, while Susan is running an errand for her mother across town, Steve skips out from the dull chore of minding Mrs. Cooper on a pretext to meet Isobel and chew the fat. However Mrs. Cooper finds out and tells her daughter, putting Steve in an awkward spot. Now jealous, for revenge, Susan calls Isobel's husband 'Pinky' (Donald MacBride) and suggests that they pretend that they are seeing each other. He agrees, but Susan goes to the wrong apartment, that of world champion archer Ward Willoughby (Jack Carson). He is puzzled but has no objection to being romanced by a beautiful woman. When Susan learns her mistake, she has difficulty extricating herself from Willoughby's apartment. They are seen by Steve and Isobel, resulting in much confusion. Things are finally cleared up, but then Susan is led to believe that Steve was alone with Isobel in her apartment for three hours while she was out.

Susan decides to get a divorce, despite Steve's pleas. She hides in Arizona with her meddling mother. Willoughby follows, to better his acquaintance with Susan. The night before the divorce hearing, Steve's lawyer, George Renny (Sidney Blackmer), spots Susan at a party and tells his client. Steve crashes the gathering but is unable to change Susan's mind. A chance remark by Steve gives Renny an idea – a divorce can be delayed if one of the parties is insane. Steve does his best to act nutty, even pushing his mother-in-law into the pool. However, he had been so eccentric in the past, that everyone (with the exception of one stranger, an older man, who he refers to as 'General Electric Whiskers') just believes he is drunk.

Nonetheless, Renny gets the divorce judge to agree to a thirty-day delay to have Steve examined by the City Lunacy Commission. When he realizes that he has gone too far, Steve tries to convince the members that he is sane; but the head of the board, Dr. Klugle (Vladimir Sokoloff), turns out to be the one person Steve hoodwinked at the party. As a result, he is committed to a sanitarium.

Steve escapes by tricking the head of the rest home, Dr. Wuthering (Sig Ruman). He returns to his apartment building one step ahead of the police, who now consider him a homicidal maniac. Steve dodges Willoughby and hides with Isobel's help. He then disguises himself as his "sister" by putting on some clothes from Isobel's apartment and shaving his mustache. He finally reaches Susan, only to have Mrs. Cooper and Willoughby show up soon afterwards. When Mrs. Cooper inadvertently confirms Steve left the apartment building to just talk to Isobel at a bar down the street on the night of their anniversary, Susan finally believes her husband and decides to bunk-in with the "sister" and take "her" to Saskatchewan in the morning.

Cast

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $1,335,000 in the US and Canada and $725,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $514,000.[1]

Radio adaptation

Love Crazy was presented on Screen Directors Playhouse August 19, 1949. Powell starred in the adaptation.[3]

gollark: Apparently `cowrie` has an option for that, although I don't really want anything very complex hooked up to this in case of bugs.
gollark: And since this runs on a Linux server, it would be easier to just have it run commands on itself. It would be very secure.
gollark: You know, arguably the best way to emulate a Linux box would be to actually have it connect to a Linux box.
gollark: `osmarks`
gollark: It's not like IPv6 deployment has been very rapid at all, it's totally safe.

References
  1. The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. https://www.imdb.com/search/title?roles=nm0001485,nm0001635&title_type=feature,tv_episode,video,tv_movie,tv_special,mini_series,documentary,game,short&sort=year,asc
  3. "Radio Guide". Pennsylvania, Altoona. Altoona Tribune. August 16, 1949. p. 19. Retrieved November 14, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
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