That Uncertain Feeling (1941)

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Victorien Sardou (play) and
Emile DeNajac (play) ...

Release Date:

20 April 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

It's a serious problem for a lady with the hiccups, and he is it!

Plot:

Against her better judgement, happily married Jill Baker is persuaded to see a popular psychoanalyst about her psychosomatic hiccups...

Plot Keywords:

Hiccup | Marriage | Psychoanalyst | Pianist | Neglected Wife

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Merle Oberon	...	Mrs. Jill Baker
Melvyn Douglas	...	Larry Baker
Burgess Meredith	...	Alexander Sebastian
Alan Mowbray	...	Dr. Vengard
Olive Blakeney	...	Margie Stallings
Harry Davenport	...	Jones (the attorney)
Sig Ruman	...	Mr. Kafka (as Sig Rumann)
Eve Arden	...	Sally Aikens (Jones' secretary)
Richard Carle	...	Albert (the butler)

Also Known As:

Ernst Lubitsch's That Uncertain Feeling (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

France:U | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #6997) | West Germany:12 (nf)

Company:

Ernst Lubitsch Productions Inc.

Trivia:

'Werner Heymann''s score for this film was nominated for an Academy Award.

Quotes:

Jones: Miss Aikens, we want a woman's point of view on a certain situation. Now, Mr. Baker has a friend and he's in trouble...
Sally Aikens: Oh, Mr. Baker!
Jones: [Shushing Larry] Now, Mr. Baker has nothing whatever to do with it. Let's call the friend Mr. Brown. Now, Mr. Brown has a wife... Mr. & Mrs. Brown have been married for, uh, how long?
Larry Baker: Well, say six years. They live in Toledo.
Sally Aikens: Six years in Toledo. That's bad.
Jones: All right then, let's say New York. Now Mr. Brown is worried about his marriage. Things are not going along as well as they used to.
Sally Aikens: What kind of a man IS this Mr. Brown?
Larry Baker: Very nice...
Sally Aikens: Is he attractive?
Jones: Very attractive.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Wide Awake (2006)

"That Uncertain Feeling" is unfleeting

Loved "That Uncertain Feeling" (1941)! Here, a superb, substantive, yet oft-times simultaneously silly, screenplay (adapted from the stage) meets first-rate actors. (The beautiful Merle Oberon is at her comedic best.) What makes this a must-see film is the palpable pathos swirling just beneath it all. In lesser hands (actors and writers all) this might've fallen into the snidely melodramatic or the mildly comedic.

By the by, who says the feeling man is dead? The reviews give credence to the fact that-- whether in their teens, twenties, or, like me, in their fifties-- men enjoy romantic comedies as much as women. I suspect that any polls showing otherwise are eschew for the very reason that too many films today use a "straw man," where the male lead isn't much more than duplicitous, a nitwit, a heel (or all three). In "That Uncertain Feeling," a certain maturity and balance rules the writers. Sure, men AND women's flaws come to the fore, but as (or more)importantly, both sexes' attributes are on show, too, to boot. If the writer creates, equally, humorously offensive male and female characters, then it actually mirrors the real world while not playing partisan sexual politics. Do that and movie theatres will be swarming with women AND men, maybe like in days of old...like those when I, too, was young.