Darling, How Could You!

Gently adapted from James M. Barrie's "Alice Sit-By-the-Fire" (and in honor of Barrie, the scriptwriters even work a "Peter Pan" joke in), this is a smooth sitcom with attractive turn-of-the- century period trappings and a cast working near its peak, surely guided by Paramount's elegant comedy director Mitchell Leisen. Joan Fontaine, happily married to John Lund (never an interesting actor, but more chipper than usual here) but a can't-help-it flirt, has been making the rounds with the boys while staying with Lund, who's a doctor to workers building the Panama Canal. The pair return to their stately Greenwich Village digs to reunite with their three kids, most prominently teen daughter Mona Freeman (who's delightful), who suspects Fontaine of cheating with family friend Peter Hanson. No great surprises, but much amusement, including a terrific opening-sequence of two of the kids viewing a "scandalous" Broadway play, featuring a posturing Gertrude Michael doing a great Ethel Barrymore parody. Part of a great wave of circa-1900 nostalgia romps that studios were churning out around then--"Life With Father," "Chicken Every Sunday," "Excuse My Dust," etc.--this one's unpretentious and fast-moving. Not shown a lot, but worth tracking down.

If you have ever wondered about the story of Mr. & Mrs. Darling before Peter Pan appeared this picture could be the answer. This said, you must watch it having in mind that it is based on Alice sit-by-the-fire, a play by J.M.Barrie (the author of Peter Pan) and that it has a rather peculiar and very British sense of humor. The Darlings (aka the Greys) are introduced to us as a rather atypical and eccentric couple returning from Panama (where Mr. Darling has been working as a doctor) to take care of their almost unknown children who hardly remember them. By watching the first part of the movie you do not know exactly what to expect: these apparently not very good parents and not particularly likable characters are presented to us in a particular way: Mrs. Grey is shown to us coquetting with every men on board of the ship that returns them back home while Mr. Grey does nothing at all to avoid it -in fact he does not seem to care at all- adopting a quite "liberal" -to say less- attitude towards this fact. Their carefree attitude towards their children does not make them seem sympathetic to us either -at least in the beginning- nor let us empathize with them - to say it softly. And yet you do not get to dislike them. Nor the film. And that's the quid of the question. Because this is not one of those films. This is definitely a Mitchell Leisen film. And that really makes the difference. I haven't seen a single Mitchell Leisen film that disliked me and this is not the exception. Scenery is great, script witty precise timing. All the actors do their best and everything fits like a glove, making the movie flowing surprisingly well, in a softly harmonious way, turning the Greys into a charming couple and the movie quite entertaining. And after all, isn't that what movies are about? Enjoy watching it.

Based on J. M. Barrie's play "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" this an entertaining comedy/drama with Joan Fontaine as Mrs. Alice Grey, John Lund as Dr. Robert Grey, and Mona Feeman as Amy Grey as their young teen-age daughter. Amy and their two other children, one an infant, and one a boy of about seven have been in the care of a nanny while Dr. and Mrs. Grey have been away for five years helping fight typhoid, malaria, and other diseases connected with the construction of the Panama Canal. The Grey's are homesick and decide to return to New York City and their children. Before their return, Amy and her brother see a Broadway play about a cheating wife and Amy declares she now knows all about the "seamy side" of life. After a period of awkward readjustment with their children, Amy overhears her mother's telephone conversation to Steven (played by Peter Hanson who is a friend of Dr. and Mrs. Grey) and Amy just knows her mother is having an affair just as the woman in the play did. She decides to put a stop to her mother's "seamy side" and dresses up in her mother's clothes and goes to Steven's house on the night she heard her mother say she would meet him there. When both her mother and father show up, poor Dr. Steven Clark is so confused because Amy told him that a married woman is secretly in love with him and would be coming to his house that evening. A really funny set of circumstances follow. Mrs. Grey finds her daughter hiding in a closet at Steven's house, all dressed up in Mrs. Grey's clothes, with gloves and tissues dangling from the bodice of her dress. As the misunderstanding unfolds, Dr. and Mrs. Grey play up the situation to the hilt. As usual Joan Fontaine, dressed in period costume, looks gorgeous and she and John Lund both do a great job of portraying their characters. Each shows their flair for comedy. John Lund was so handsome in this film. Mona Freeman was adorable as Amy and turned in a charming performance. She was perfect casting as Joan's daughter as she really looked like she could be Joan's own real-life offspring. It is seldom seen on cable, but if it does show up, try to catch it or tape it. It is worth a look.

Darling, How Could You is based on a James M. Barrie play Alice Sit By The Fire which when it came to Broadway in 1905 boasted in its cast Ethel Barrymore in the Joan Fontaine role and her brother John Barrymore in the part Peter Hansen played. I'm willing to bet that as Barrie wrote it originally the parents were in some British setting instead of Americans building the Panama Canal.

John Lund and Joan Fontaine are in 1905 America where they are a doctor working the hospital and his wife with three kids who are all back in the states including an infant who was born in the Canal Zone, but was sent back to the States to join the other two, Mona Freeman and David Stollery in the care of their grandparents. Now they are returning home along with doctor colleague Peter Hansen.

Now the kids have to get reacquainted with their parents. For Freeman it will be most difficult as she is a girl with an active imagination that's been stimulated by a lot of Victorian morality type dramas.

Some innocent words spoken by Hansen to Fontaine stimulates the young lady and all the comedic situations thereafter stem from that.

As we were in the button down 50s when Darling How Could You came out, they had far more in common with Victorian standards then we do today. I venture to say that Darling How Could You is hardly a candidate for a remake.

Still it's an amusing antique.

Dr. and Mrs. Grey (John Lund and Joan Fontaine) are among the worst parents I've seen in a film. When the story begins, they've apparently been down in Panama for many years battling diseases...all the while leaving their three children behind to be raised by servants. It's so bad that when they DO return to the States, they have absolutely no idea which kids are the dock are theirs...and the same with the kids, as they have no idea WHAT their parents look like!! And, as a result, the viewer pretty much hates these god-awful parents from the onset of the film. Even in the film "Mommy, Dearest", the mother paid attention to her children!!

Oddly, despite being terrible parents, Dr. Grey seems much more at- east with the kids and quickly wins them over to him. But Mrs. Grey is pretty much as stupid as a tomato and again and again, she manages to alienate her kids from her...as well as convince their oldest that she's cheating on the Doctor!

The film is supposed to be a comedy and J.M. Berrie apparently misjudged how horrified the audience might be in seeing this story when he wrote the play...or perhaps the problem is that the screenplay manages to be the problem. Regardless, it's only natural that some viewers would be so put off by the parents' neglect...so much so that the comedic aspects seem awkward and rather unfunny. Plus there is a portion where the daughter dresses up as an adult in order to try to vamp the man she thinks is her mother's lover--and this is super- creepy as the kid looks to be about 11 or perhaps 12. As for the other two reviews here on IMDb, they seemed able to look past all this and enjoy the film. As for me, perhaps it's because I am a parent or am a retired therapist and social worker...all I know is that I was really put off by the story...though I think the actors and director did try their best.