Touches You

Just what I expected

Excellent but underrated film

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Thinking that her husband William Powell is cheating on her thanks to the interference of her Wagnerian mother (Florence Bates). Suspicious over a situation involving his old flame (Gail Patrick), Loy uses that to file for divorce. Trying to avoid interference in a reconciliation with Loy by the deliciously meddlesome Bates, Powell pretends to be insane to prevent the divorce from going through and then disguises himself as his own sister, adding plenty of comical mishaps, most of them involving the continuously cheery Bates who wants anything but a happy ending for her daughter and son- in-law.Reminding me of a less obnoxious version of Ethel Merman in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", Bates could be the poster dowager for passive/aggressive monster-in-law. It's also nice to see Patrick in a light-hearted role, even if she is still playing the femme fatale. In drag, Powell looks like a modern day "Whistler's Mother", like one of the many little old ladies who got some gravity in their girdle in the "Our Gang" shorts. Jack Carson is added into the mix as the fourth party in this marital mix-up, and Toto is so cute once again as Patrick's pooch who takes a liking to Powell's puss when it's trapped in the middle of an elevator door.There's plenty of farce to keep this moving, most memorably Powell's plight in the elevator, a throw rug that knocks both Powell and Bates on their tuchus, Powell's public display of insanity (which ends up with a delicious revenge against Bates) and the wisecracks from Powell's drag alter towards the harridan mother. While the majority of Powell and Loy's co-starring vehicles focused on the verbal funny, this focuses on the visual and makes it a delight for those who need a little farce to go with their wise-cracks. This would be the last co-starring appearance of Powell and Loy outside of the "Thin Man" films and a cameo by Loy in "The Senator Was Indiscreet".

Most of the stuff that occurs in the story stretches the limits of credibility but at least Powell and Loy have a good time doing it. This is screwball comedy in high gear, paced by the high energy of the players, especially after Steve Ireland's (William Powell) attorney recommends an insanity defense in a divorce proceeding brought by Mrs. Ireland (Myrna Loy) over a misunderstanding. Did you notice though, even after four years of marriage the Ireland's were sleeping in separate beds.I'm pretty sure I saw something about this in another film but just chalked it up to a writer's imagination, but this time when the story introduced a Lunacy Commission I had to look it up. Turns out there was such a thing; in England a Lunacy Commission was a public body established to oversee asylums and the welfare of the mentally ill. In New York, the state legislature did away with it's own version of a Lunacy Commission which it considered a patronage racket. That occurred in the Winter of 1940, so it appears that the screen writers got this one in just under the wire.Reading some of the other viewer comments there seems to be high regard for Powell's cross dressing caper in this one and he did do a pretty good job as his own sister. But the stunt that really caught my eye was that time he did a remarkable flip with a ladder on the grounds of the sanitarium, with his head winding up in between the rungs! I hope he was lucky enough to do that in one take! I'm sure Thin Man fans will get a kick out of this film. It came out just about the middle of that series of pictures, with Powell and Loy pretty much in the same mode as a lovey dovey couple until things go awry with Isobel Grayson (Gail Patrick), Ward Willoughby (Jack Carson), the ping ponging elevator, the Bristol Party, the watch stealing cockatoo, divorce court, the Lunacy Commission and that blasted infernal rug. At times you can even make sense of it.

Half way through the 'Thin Man' series, that brilliant pair William Powell and Myrna Loy took time off to make this romantic comedy, and capture a bit more of their magic for posterity. They may have been the most effective romantic comedy duo in cinema history, and to say they clicked is to understate the situation. The viewer is liable to hang on Powell's every witticism, and Loy's every wry glance. This film is excellently directed by old pro Jack Conway. Elisha Cook Jr., who only plays an elevator boy, was finally to become a fixture later the same year in 'The Maltese Falcon', so these were the last moments of his obscurity. Jack Carson, because he is kept under control by a strong director, manages to avoid being annoying in this film, and that is saying a lot, considering his manic over-acting when uncontrolled. In fact, he turns out to be just right for the part of a character who is himself annoying. He knew how to do that! This film starts out with Powell stepping out of a taxi and saying to the doorman at his Manhattan apartment house: 'There's nothing wrong with any person's life that can't be fixed by a good marriage.' Well, that's tempting fate! This really is a kisses-to-hisses story. In the first half, where everybody is lovey-dovey, we are treated to more of that exquisite marital repartee of Powell and Loy which makes the 'Thin Man' series so enjoyable. And there are many terrific witty lines in the script, so many one trips over them in fact. But then the film takes a turn from a romantic comedy into a black comedy, and the story becomes seriously grim, making the film come out at the end as a bizarre hybrid of no settled genre. Some of the extreme attitudes adopted by the character played by Loy are then so uninspiring that one prefers Gail Patrick, the femme fatale and temptress, who has an impeccable sense of fun, while Loy sinks into self-pity and humourlessness. The film is delightful because of Powell and Loy, but only just, and you have to force yourself to laugh at the comic episodes in a lunatic asylum, because such things are only funny if you have never known anyone with genuine mental illness and think such things are a lark. We are lucky to have any extra films showing the magic of Powell and Loy together, as there is no comparable sparkle anywhere else outside of a champagne glass. I knew Myrna Loy extremely superficially when she was getting on in age, and found her uncommunicative and self-contained, not outgoing at all. But that cannot have been the real her, although I suspect she was a reserved person by nature, which may explain the wonderful feeling we get in these films that her responses are always being teased out of her by Powell, who is the only person who knows how to do it. There is always a sense about her that, left to her own devices, she would keep her own counsel and say nothing, but when needled by Powell, wry witticisms suddenly arise from the depths, as if a sparkling fountain had been turned on in the bright sunshine. I believe this was the key to why they worked as a duo, because her natural reserve is being eternally assaulted by the mischievous Powell, and every amusing remark she makes emerges as a result of his conquest of her silence, so that their every moment on screen together is one long, sustained act of his seduction of her, and her countless humorous submissions are so witty and so genteel that we too are seduced by the pair of them every time.

Complications arise as a couple celebrates its fourth wedding anniversary in this screwball comedy. Powell and Loy are as wonderful as ever and get good support from Patrick as Powell's man-eating ex-girlfriend, Carson as the fellow Loy uses to get even with her cheating husband, and Bates as Loy's meddling mother. It gets off to a terrific start, including a hilarious scene where Powell gets his head stuck in the elevator doors. As the action shifts to an insane asylum in the middle part of the film, the comedy is somewhat forced and unfunny. However, the last part is quite amusing, with a rare chance to see Powell in drag.