I Was a Male War Bride (1949)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Charles Lederer (screenplay) &
Leonard Spigelgass (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 August 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

WAIT TILL YOU SEE FLORENCE! (original ad - all caps)

Plot:

Captain Henri Rochard is a French officer assigned to work with Lieut. Catherine Gates. Through a wacky series of misadventures...

Plot Keywords:

Army | American | French | Germany | Railroad Crossing

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Cary Grant	...	Capt. Henri Rochard
Ann Sheridan	...	Lt. Catherine Gates
Marion Marshall	...	Lt. Kitty Lawrence
Randy Stuart	...	Lt. Eloise Billings
Bill Neff	...	Capt. Jack Ramsey (as William Neff)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
King Donovan	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)
Charles B. Fitzsimons	...	Lieutenant Kelly (scenes deleted)
Robert Stevenson	...	Lieutenant (scenes deleted)
Otto Waldis	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Howard Hawks' I Was a Male War Bride (USA) (complete title)
I Was a Male War Bride (Australia)
You Can't Sleep Here (UK)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate # 13534) | UK:U | France:U | Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Germany

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

'Edward Platt (I)''s film debut.

Goofs:

Factual errors: A ship's sick bay would have adequately trained personnel (hospital corpsmen) to handle any situation. To call "Florence" into sick bay to help with a baby delivery wouldn't have been necessary.

Quotes:

Capt. Henri Rochard: I am an alien spouse of female military personnel en route to the United States under public law 271 of the Congress.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992)

Grant and Sheridan Shine in Hawks Comedy

Although the film shows hundreds of American female military personnel stationed in Germany after World War II, apparently few were interested in the local men. According to Howard Hawks's "I Was a Male War Bride," only the male soldiers wed Europeans, and the military bureaucracy and red tape were stacked against American women marrying European men. With that premise, an American Lieutenant, Ann Sheridan, falls for Frenchman Cary Grant, and the couple resort to extraordinary ploys to both comply with and circumvent the rules to marry and bring Grant to the U.S. as Sheridan's "bride." Although Grant is about as French as Big Ben and looks as feminine in drag as Sylvester Stallone, Cary is Cary and brings charm and charisma to his improbable role of Captain Henri Rochard. Tough and sexy Sheridan is better cast, but the sum of the two stars exceeds either apart. Cary and Ann have chemistry and work well together in a plot that could have easily fallen apart with a less skilled team of actors and director.

Grant plays the patient and suffering spouse, who must endlessly explain that he is married to an American soldier and entitled to shelter and transportation in a system that does not recognize his gender as compatible with his situation. Throughout, Grant's face and body language speak volumes about the frustration of dealing with bureaucracy and filling in forms in triplicate. Although at times Sheridan seems oblivious to the depth of Grant's problems, her performance is fine, and she convincingly captures the transition from an initial loathing of to an eventual attraction to Rochard. Shot on location in post-war Germany, the black-and-white photography captures the beauty of the countryside and the devastation of the cities with documentary like precision. Hawks keeps the proceedings well paced, and, while rarely laugh-out-loud funny, "I Was a Male War Bride" and its megawatt stars provide excellent entertainment.