The Male Animal **** (1942, Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson, Eugene Pallette) – Classic Movie Review 10,228

Director Elliott Nugent’s 1942 Warner Bros black and white screwball comedy The Male Animal delightfully pairs Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland, actors usually more at home in serious dramas.

Fonda stars as Tommy Turner, a doughty college tutor  at Midwestern University who is so busy struggling with students that he fails to see his wife Ellen Turner (de Havilland) falling into the arms of US football player Joe Ferguson (Jack Carson), an alumnus All-American who has returned for the big game between Midwestern and Michigan at Homecoming weekend.

The Male Animal is a wise and witty film, intelligently adapted by Julius J Epstein, Philip G Epstein and Stephen Morehouse Avery from the James Thurber/ Elliott Nugent play, with plenty of funny lines and winning performances by the stars and support actors.

Warner Bros filmed a musical remake in 1952: She’s Working her Way Through College, with Virginia Mayo and Ronald Reagan.

Also in the cast are Joan Leslie, Eugene Pallette, Don DeFore, Herbert Anderson, Hattie McDaniel, Ivan F Simpson, Jean Ames, Minna Phillips, Regina Wallace, Frank Mayo, William B Davidson, Bobby Barnes, Tod Andrews, Walter Brooke, Bess Flowers, Creighton Hale, Howard C Hickman, William Hopper, Audra Lindley, Arthur Loft, Audrey Long, Hank Mann, George Meeker, Ray Montgomery, Spec O’Donnell, Cliff Saum, Dave Willock, Joan Winfield, Juanita Stark and Gig Young.

The Male Animal is directed by Elliott Nugent, runs 101 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by by Julius J Epstein, Philip G Epstein and Stephen Morehouse Avery, based on the James Thurber/ Elliott Nugent play, is shot in black and white by Arthur Edeson, is produced by Hal B Wallis and Wolfgang Reinhardt, is scored by Heinz Roemheld, and designed by John Hughes.

Olivia de Havilland (1916–2020).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,228

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