My Life with Caroline
Encyclopedia
My Life with Caroline is a 1941
comedy film
starring Ronald Colman
and Anna Lee
in a screenplay
by John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard, directed by Lewis Milestone
for RKO Radio Pictures. and represents Anna Lee
's second Hollywood film, and her debut in a Hollywood star role.
), along with Ronald Coleman, Charles Boyer
, Irene Dunn, Lewis Milestone, and Anatole Litvak
, founded United Producers Corporation. The company intended to make 10 films for RKO. My Life With Caroline was the first of five that were to star Colman. The film's screenplay was written by John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard, adapted from the 1938 Louis Verneuil
French
film The Train for Venice
which was itself based upon the stage play LeTrain pour Venise written by Verneuil and Georges Berr. Director Milestone has tested actresses Miriam Hopkins
, Paulette Goddard
, and Jean Arthur
for the role of Caroline but decided on Anna Lee
after seeing her in footage from Robert Stevenson
's Young Man's Fancy
. While Anna Lee's first Hollywood film was Seven Sinners (1940), in it she was cast in a supporting role. My Life With Caroline represents her debut in a starring role.
) weds ditsy socialite Caroline (Anna Lee
) who sees nothing wrong with chasing men even after her marriage. Caroline flirts with Paco Del Valle (Gilbert Roland
) while at a charity ball in Alpine Lodge, Idaho, and Paco then asks Mr. Bliss (Charles Winninger
), her father, for permission to marry his daughter. Bliss tells them they need to ask her husband, and Caroline and Paco telegraph Anthony in New York. As the two reach the Idaho airport and are waiting for an eastbound plane, Mason has just himself arrived. Seeing the two together, he recalls in an involved flashback
sequence a nearly identical and complicated situation from two years earlier when his wife was enamored of sculptor Paul Martindale (Reginald Gardiner
) in Palm Beach, Florida
. Returning to the present in Idaho, Caroline sees Mason's pilot carrying the bust of her that had been sculpted by Paul Martindale, and follows the pilot to where Mason was waiting. Martindale, having himself been at the charity ball, finds himself to be a chance spectator of the reunion. He proceeds to the airport terminal, where he joins Mason, Caroline, Bliss, and Del Valle. Caroline blithly tells Mason that she cannot decide now between Del Valle and Martindale, forcing Anthony into a new set of situations where he has to work overtime to win her back.
panned the film, offering that Ronald Colman was ill used in the film and writing that "either Mr. Colman is slipping or his writers are," and expanded that John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard did not do a proper adaption of "a frivolous French play". They noted that what at one point in the film is meant to begin an ongoing "battle of wits" between the characters of Colman and Reginald Gardiner, devolved into to a repetition of "flot gags," and further questioned why Milestone "should put his usually fine directorial hand to a story as vapid as this," and why otherwise competent performers "should be wasted on such obvious frippery." They concluded that time spent watching the film was "time ill spent."
1941 in film
The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
starring Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
and Anna Lee
Anna Lee
Anna Lee, MBE was an English actress.-Career:Lee studied at the Royal Albert Hall, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship...
in a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard, directed by Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front , both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director...
for RKO Radio Pictures. and represents Anna Lee
Anna Lee
Anna Lee, MBE was an English actress.-Career:Lee studied at the Royal Albert Hall, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship...
's second Hollywood film, and her debut in a Hollywood star role.
Background
In 1940, William Hawks (brother of film director Howard HawksHoward Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
), along with Ronald Coleman, Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
, Irene Dunn, Lewis Milestone, and Anatole Litvak
Anatole Litvak
Anatole Litvak was a Ukrainian-born filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in a various countries and languages...
, founded United Producers Corporation. The company intended to make 10 films for RKO. My Life With Caroline was the first of five that were to star Colman. The film's screenplay was written by John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard, adapted from the 1938 Louis Verneuil
Louis Verneuil
Louis Jacques Marie Collin du Bocage , better known by the pen name Louis Verneuil, was a French playwright, screenwriter, and actor....
French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
film The Train for Venice
The Train for Venice
The Train for Venice is a 1938 French comedy film directed by André Berthomieu and starring Max Dearly, Victor Boucher and Louis Verneuil...
which was itself based upon the stage play LeTrain pour Venise written by Verneuil and Georges Berr. Director Milestone has tested actresses Miriam Hopkins
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...
, Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
, and Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur...
for the role of Caroline but decided on Anna Lee
Anna Lee
Anna Lee, MBE was an English actress.-Career:Lee studied at the Royal Albert Hall, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship...
after seeing her in footage from Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (director)
Robert Stevenson was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society....
's Young Man's Fancy
Young Man's Fancy (film)
Young Man's Fancy is a 77 minute long 1940 British comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson, who also wrote the story, and starring Anna Lee and Griffith Jones. An aristocratic Englishman is unhappily engaged to a brewery heiress but meets a human cannonball during a visit to a circus and falls in...
. While Anna Lee's first Hollywood film was Seven Sinners (1940), in it she was cast in a supporting role. My Life With Caroline represents her debut in a starring role.
Plot
Wealthy publisher Anthony Mason (Ronald ColmanRonald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
) weds ditsy socialite Caroline (Anna Lee
Anna Lee
Anna Lee, MBE was an English actress.-Career:Lee studied at the Royal Albert Hall, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship...
) who sees nothing wrong with chasing men even after her marriage. Caroline flirts with Paco Del Valle (Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
) while at a charity ball in Alpine Lodge, Idaho, and Paco then asks Mr. Bliss (Charles Winninger
Charles Winninger
Charles Winninger was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.-Biography:He began as a vaudeville actor...
), her father, for permission to marry his daughter. Bliss tells them they need to ask her husband, and Caroline and Paco telegraph Anthony in New York. As the two reach the Idaho airport and are waiting for an eastbound plane, Mason has just himself arrived. Seeing the two together, he recalls in an involved flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
sequence a nearly identical and complicated situation from two years earlier when his wife was enamored of sculptor Paul Martindale (Reginald Gardiner
Reginald Gardiner
Reginald Gardiner was an English-born actor in film and television and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Britain. His parents wanted him to be an architect and he studied at it but he wanted to be an actor and eventually got his way.He started as a super on stage and eventually...
) in Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
. Returning to the present in Idaho, Caroline sees Mason's pilot carrying the bust of her that had been sculpted by Paul Martindale, and follows the pilot to where Mason was waiting. Martindale, having himself been at the charity ball, finds himself to be a chance spectator of the reunion. He proceeds to the airport terminal, where he joins Mason, Caroline, Bliss, and Del Valle. Caroline blithly tells Mason that she cannot decide now between Del Valle and Martindale, forcing Anthony into a new set of situations where he has to work overtime to win her back.
Partial cast
- Ronald ColmanRonald ColmanRonald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
as Anthony Mason - Anna LeeAnna LeeAnna Lee, MBE was an English actress.-Career:Lee studied at the Royal Albert Hall, then debuted with a bit part in the film His Lordship...
as Caroline Mason - Charles WinningerCharles WinningerCharles Winninger was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in drama.-Biography:He began as a vaudeville actor...
as Mr. Bliss - Reginald GardinerReginald GardinerReginald Gardiner was an English-born actor in film and television and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Britain. His parents wanted him to be an architect and he studied at it but he wanted to be an actor and eventually got his way.He started as a super on stage and eventually...
as Paul Martindale - Gilbert RolandGilbert RolandGilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
as Paco Del Valle - Kay Leslie as Helen
- Hugh O'Connell as Muirhead
- Murray AlperMurray AlperMurray Alper was an American actor.Alper's earliest screen credit was 1930's The Royal Family of Broadway, and for the following thirty-five years, he appeared in a number of films, usually playing cab drivers, bookies, cops and GIs.Frequently seen in comedies, Alper was featured in the Three...
as Jenkins - Matt Moore as Walters
- Dorothy AdamsDorothy AdamsDorothy Adams was an American character actress. She was married to character actor Byron Foulger from 1921-1970. She was the mother of soap opera actress Rachel Ames...
as Mrs. Rodwell - Richard CarleRichard CarleRichard Carle was an American film actor. He appeared in 132 films between 1915 and 1941.He was born as Charles Nicholas Carleto in Somerville, Massachusetts...
as Reverend Dr. Curtis - Robert Greig as Albert
- Michèle MorganMichèle MorganMichèle Morgan is a French film actress, who was a leading lady for three decades.- Career :Morgan was born Simone Renée Roussel in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, a western suburb of Paris....
as Annette
- Additional roles played by Monte Collins, Dudley DickersonDudley DickersonDudley Dickerson was an African American film actor. Born in Oklahoma, he appeared in nearly 160 films between 1932 and 1952, and is best remembered for his roles in several Three Stooges films.-Career:...
, Jack MulhallJack MulhallJack Mulhall, born John Joseph Francis Mulhall, was a film actor since the silent film era and appeared in over 430 films....
, and Mona RicoMona RicoMona Rico was a Mexican-born American actress. Her films include Eternal Love , Shanghai Lady , A Devil With Women , and Zorro Rides Again .-Career:...
Critical reception
The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
panned the film, offering that Ronald Colman was ill used in the film and writing that "either Mr. Colman is slipping or his writers are," and expanded that John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard did not do a proper adaption of "a frivolous French play". They noted that what at one point in the film is meant to begin an ongoing "battle of wits" between the characters of Colman and Reginald Gardiner, devolved into to a repetition of "flot gags," and further questioned why Milestone "should put his usually fine directorial hand to a story as vapid as this," and why otherwise competent performers "should be wasted on such obvious frippery." They concluded that time spent watching the film was "time ill spent."
External links
- My Life with Caroline at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- My Life with Caroline at Allmovie
- My Life with Caroline at Turner Classic MoviesTurner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...