I Was A Male War Bride (1949)

Introduction

I Was a Male War Bride is a 1949 screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan.

The film was based on “Male War Bride Trial to Army”, a biography of Henri Rochard (pen name of Roger Charlier), a Belgian who married an American nurse.

The film is about French Army officer Henri Rochard (Grant) who must pass as a war bride in order to go back to the United States with Women’s Army Corps officer Catherine Gates (Sheridan).

Outline

In Heidelberg in post-World War II Allied-occupied Germany, French Army Captain Henri Rochard is given the task of recruiting a highly skilled lens maker named Schindler. He is assigned American Lieutenant Catherine Gates as his driver, much to their mutual discomfort (arising from several prior clashes). The only available transportation is a motorcycle which, due to Army regulations, only Catherine is allowed to drive; Henri has to ride in the sidecar. After several mishaps, the constantly quarreling couple arrive at their destination, Bad Nauheim.

At the hotel, bothered by back pain, Catherine warily accepts Henri’s offer of a back rub. When she falls asleep, he tries to leave her room, but the exterior door handle falls off, trapping him inside. He spends an uncomfortable night in a chair. In the morning, she refuses to believe his story. Unknown to him, the innkeeper’s wife has replaced the exterior knob, so when he tells Catherine to see for herself how the door will not open, it does. Eventually, the innkeeper’s wife comes to the room, forcing Henri to hide on the ledge outside the window. The innkeeper’s wife explains everything to Catherine, but not before Henri falls off the ledge.

Later, Henri goes undercover to search for Schindler, now working in the black market. He refuses to let Catherine help him and tells her that if she sees him to pretend she does not know him. The black market is raided by the authorities, and he is rounded up with everyone else. When he asks her to vouch for his identity, she obeys his earlier order not to reveal that she knows him. While he is in jail, she finds Schindler, who is happy to leave Germany and ply his trade in France. Later, she apologizes to a furious Henri, and by the time they return to Heidelberg, they have fallen in love.

Red tape forces Henri and Catherine to be married first in a civil ceremony before they can each have their choice of ceremony: Army chaplain (Catherine) and French church (Henri). Before they can consummate their marriage in a Paris hotel, Catherine is ordered to report immediately to headquarters in the morning, as her unit is about to be shipped back to the United States. They subsequently learn that the only way Henri can get a visa is under the War Brides Act as the “spouse” of an American soldier. After many misunderstandings, caused by the unusual nature of his situation, he is given permission to accompany her, but circumstances and Army regulations conspire to keep them from spending the night together.

When they try to board the transport ship, Navy sailors do not accept that Henri is a war “bride”. Catherine persuades him to dress as a female Army nurse to get aboard. The deception works, but once underway, their ruse is discovered and he is arrested. Catherine goes to the ship’s captain who understands the legalities of their situation, and they finally have some privacy – in the ship’s brig.

Cast

Cary Grant as Capt. Henri Rochard
Ann Sheridan as Lt. Catherine Gates
Marion Marshall as Lt. Kitty Lawrence
Randy Stuart as Lt. Eloise Billings (Mae)
William Neff as Capt. Jack Rumsey
Eugene Gericke as Tony Jowitt
Ruben Wendorf as Innkeeper’s Assistant
Lester Sharpe as Walter
John Whitney as Trumble
Kenneth Tobey as Seaman
Robert Stevenson as Lieutenant
Alfred Linder as Bartender
David McMahon as Chaplain
Joe Haworth as Shore Patrol
Gil Herman as Naval Officer
Lily Kann as Innkeeper’s Wife
Harry Lauter as Lieutenant
Alex Gerry as Waiter
André Charlot as French Minister
Russ Conway as Cmdr. Willis
Mike Mahoney as Sailor
William McLean as Expectant GI
Paul Hardtmuth as Burgermeister
Barbara Perry as Tall WAC
William Pullen as Sergeant
Otto Reichow
Bill Self as Sergeant
John Serret as French Notary
Martin Miller as Schindler
William Murphy as Sergeant
William Yetter, Jr. as German Policeman
John Zilly as Shore Patrol
Kay Young as Maj. Prendergast
Robert Nichols as Sergeant (uncredited film debut)
Eleanor Audley as Assignment Officer (uncredited)

Production

Filming began on 28 September 1948 and lasted more than eight months due to a variety of illnesses contracted by cast members and crew. Sheridan contracted pleurisy that developed into pneumonia, suspending shooting for two weeks. Hawks broke out in unexplained hives all over his body. Grant came down with hepatitis complicated by jaundice, and production was shut down for three months, until Grant recovered and regained around 30 pounds. When screenwriter Charles Lederer was ill, his friend Orson Welles wrote part of a short chase scene as a favour to him. The delay in production pushed the budget over $2 million.

Filming took place primarily in Heidelberg, Germany, London at Shepperton Studios, and Los Angeles at the 20th Century Fox studios. King Donovan, Charles B. Fitzsimons, Robert Stevenson, and Otto Waldis all shot scenes for this film, but all of them were ultimately deleted.

Release

The film played Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for two weeks starting 19 August 1949. Its New York premiere was on 26 August 1949, at the Roxy Theatre. The opening was originally scheduled for Radio City Music Hall, but filming delays placed the opening in conflict with the Music Hall’s schedule.

The film grossed over $4.5 million, making it 20th’s biggest earner of 1949. It was also Howard Hawks’ 3rd highest grosser to that time, behind only Sergeant York (1941) and Red River (1948).

Trivia

Howard Hawks’s first film to be shot in Europe, it was beset with problems.
Despite his illness, Cary Grant thoroughly enjoyed making the film, calling it “the best comedy I’ve ever done.”
For the portion of the picture in which he dresses as a WAC, Cary Grant wanted to play the character with effeminate gestures, but Howard Hawks convinced him it would be funnier if he just acted like a man in women’s clothes.
Calling upon his vaudevillian roots, Cary Grant insisted upon doing his own stunts, including one in which he was lifted up by a railroad-crossing gate.
- Ann Sheridan even got into the act, driving a 400-pound motorcycle with Grant in the sidecar for a sequence.
- She navigated the bike expertly, except for an unfortunate run-in with a goose: its death terribly upset the actress but, despite this, Sheridan had a positive experience making the film.
Howard Hawks was given license to cast whomever he wanted in the supporting roles, so he cast his then girlfriend, Marion Marshall, in the role of Lt. Kitty Lawrence.
Travelling to Heidelberg by train, Ann Sheridan’s luggage was impounded by customs officials at the French-German border who had mistaken her for a known smuggler.
- The studio had to go to considerable lengths to prove there had been an error.

Production & Filming Details

Director(s):
- Howard Hawks
Producer(s):
- Sol C. Siegel … producer
Writer(s):
- Charles Lederer … (screen play)
- Leonard Spigelgass … (screen play)
- Hagar Wilde … (screen play)
- Henri Rochard … (story)
Music:
- Cyril J. Mockridge … (as Cyril Mockridge)
Cinematography:
- Osmond Borradaile … director of photography (as O. Borrodaile)
- Norbert Brodine … director of photography
Editor(s):
- James B. Clark
Production:
- Twentieth Century Fox
Distributor(s):
- Twentieth Century Fox
Release Date: 19 August 1949 (Los Angeles, US).
Running Time: 105 minutes.
Rating: A.
Country: US.
Language: English.