After the war, a war correspondent exasperates his fiance by staying in France, trying to convince families back home in America to adopt war orphans. She sends him a sort of a Dear John letter bemoaning all the children she should have if they had been married when they should have.
This gives him an idea to surprise her with an orphan.
In the first half hour of the film, the most memorable moment comes when a young orphan girl sings Caro Nome. They just let her sing the whole thing without interruption, and it's beautiful. It doesn't necessarily make some greater point in the movie, but it's moving, and it's something that would never happen in a modern movie, I'm sure. It doesn't feel like a moment too long.
The comedy picks up when you get back to America with Bing, orphans in tow, and learn that our girl back home has left him and it is the eve of her marriage to a blue-blooded millionaire.
Of course that doesn't discourage Bing - the hijinks that follow are partly about the clash of cultures when the humble daughter of a fisherman marries into a family of high breeding. It's more of a send-up of the wealthy than of the working class, but it does play both ways.
In the middle of it all is Bing, using wrestling to loosen up the upper class and bring them down to his level.
This movie is darling and wonderful. Four stars, will definitely watch again!
2 comments:
Agreed!
I had forgotten about this till you posted...I would have loved a husband that adopted me a couple of adorable war orphans as a wedding present, I tell you...next lifetime.
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