The Man Who Came to Dinner

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Yes, most of the below reviewers are correct. "The Man Who Came to Dinner" is a splendid comedy. But what no one has mentioned - and this is especially relevant, given some of the negative comments here - is that Kaufmann and Hart wrote the play, basing the Whiteside character on their friend Alexander Woolcott, who was a hugely famous and influential - not to mention opinionated and acerbic - theatre critic of the day. The presence of Jimmy Durante, playing "Banjo" is important because a high profile member of the Woolcott "rat-pack" was Harpo Marx, clearly the model for Banjo. Monty Wooley played "Sheridan Whiteside" in the play's initial run (and of course here in the movie) but it's a tribute to Woolcott's ability to laugh at himself that during the play's national tour of the US Woolcott actually played the Sheridan Whiteside part himself. (I only know all of this because I've just finished reading Harpo Marx' autobiography, "Harpo Speaks", which I highly recommend to all IMDBers)

source: The Man Who Came to Dinner

Worlds collide in The Man Who Came to Dinner. Sheridan Whiteside noted critic and acerbic wit gets a meal while on a lecture tour at the very respectable Rotarian home of Mr.and Mrs. Stanley in small town Ohio. Upon leaving their home, Whiteside trips going down their porch stairs and breaks a leg. He's then confined to their home and literally takes over the place. Authors George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart use The Man Who Came for Dinner as an opportunity to satirize both their elite world of ideas and wits and the stifling world of small town Ohio. There are so many concurrent plot lines going in this story, I can't begin to list them all. Suffice it to say that just corraling them all together to make a coherent play was enough of a triumph for Kaufman and Hart. The play ran on Broadway from 1939 to 1941 for 739 performances. Besides Monty Woolley in the title role the only other two cast members who came over from Broadway were Ruth Vivian as the pixillated sister of Mr. Stanley and Mary Wickes as Ms. Preen the much put upon nurse that has to deal with Woolley's insults. Though Ruth Vivian made only one other screen appearance besides The Man Who Came To Dinner, Mary Wickes had an over 50 year career in Hollywood right up to her appearances in the Sister Act films. Though a whole lot of people, most particularly Orson Welles in a made for television movie, have played Sheridan Whiteside the part has remained Monty Woolley's. The Whiteside character is based on fellow Algonquin Club member Alexander Woollcott who like Woolley was acerbic, witty and gay. You will also recognize Noel Coward in Reginald Gardiner, Gertrude Lawrence in Ann Sheridan, and Jimmy Durante lampooning his fellow comedian, Harpo Marx. Though Harpo never said a word in film, he was every bit the wit his brother Groucho was and more. Bette Davis who was fighting for better roles continually with Jack Warner takes the supporting part as Woolley's wise and efficient girl Friday. You won't see any of Bette's real talent here, she's not the center of the film. But she did agree to appear in this to give the film a box office name. I think she did it because she liked the play and wanted to be associated with the screen version. Could it be done with references to today's celebrities instead of those of 1939? Very easily and I can see the persona of Sheridan Whiteside today embodied in Rush Limbaugh. If The Man Who Came to Dinner is broadcast again, don't ever miss an opportunity to see a great American piece of literature performed.

This movie has an undeniably great cast, and some witty dialogue. But the central character is so cruel and manipulative that I couldn't exactly enjoy his triumphs. By the time Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) had deprived Mr. and Mrs. Stanley of, not only their dignity, but their servants *and* their children (encouraging them to run away from home), well, I was feeling very sorry for this family. Suddenly it just wasn't funny anymore. The overall message of the film seems to be that it's okay for an educated, "cultured" man like Sheridan to look down upon people of a lower class. His rudeness and snobbery are condoned because the Stanleys are small-town (and thus small-minded?) folks. Mr. Stanley is rather stuffy, and Mrs. Stanley may be silly, but they seem like decent, harmless people who don't deserve to be treated like dirt. Neither do the poor doctor and nurse. I was waiting for the nurse (Mary Wickes) to blow up at Sheridan instead of running away from him all the time, and then when she finally confronts him, yes, she tells him off a bit, but she also declares that he's won - she's quitting the nursing profession. Then he laughs and I guess we're supposed to laugh at her too, but dammit, I find the whole thing sad. Bette Davis gives a very sympathetic performance as the ogre's secretary - which made me even angrier at Sheridan for almost destroying her happiness. He redeems himself slightly at the end, but for me it was much too little, too late.

This movie is about an art critic and radio personality, supposedly 'wonderful', 'charming', 'clever', and 'witty'(or so other characters keep telling he is, when he in fact opposite of all of them), meeting with an accident during a lecture tour in American Midwest, his taking over the house of his businessman host, and his selfish (one of his 'endearing' traits by testimony of characters in the movie) interferences in the lives of all he comes into contact. If ever there was movie that can be called dated, this is it. It was made to reflect and entertain particular set of people. Most of them and their work were, though now thankfully forgotten, then influential in so called theater, art, and intellectual, circles of USA, based mainly in New York and Hollywood. As is to be expected, movie looks down on so called 'flyover country' and its values. That in itself may not be a bad thing, but is not a good idea if one is stupider and empty headed than people one is looking down on. No matter how hard one tries one can't make superficial cliché words turn lukewarm water into acid that burns, or wine that delights. Writers of this play turned movie were not Oscar Wilde, and it shows. Especially in contrast when they borrow a few lines from him. Protagonist's much praised wit seems to consist mostly in verbal threats of slapstick violence against various victims. As such it is even more ephemeral than actual slapstick, which at least has some physical substance. Almost all of his victims do not resist (this is another giveaway that this movie is a coastal elite fantasy since actual people in middle of USA are not known for passive submission, quite the contrary). When his sectary, Bette Davis, give him a talking to, she is as mild and ineffective as other token resistance from others towards the end. In fact, given that she has very willingly worked for him for 10 years, before objecting to what she has seen, only conclusion that can be drawn is that her character is extremely stupid. Movie shows its stage origins. But then people who produced this can't be very imaginative or creative to begin with. It does have the polished production values expected of a studio product, and has a competent enough cast, though as expected during that period, most of them overact (in the case of the lead, Monty Woolley, atrociously). This almost completely wordy movie, drops names and makes allusions, to then current celebrities, and would be celebrities, in every other sentence. Most of the references have been unintelligible to most viewers since shortly after the movie was made. Its characters were also supposedly based on specific real people, people long dead and buried now, deservedly so, as viewers of this movie soon realize.

This witty and wonderful Christmas classic has been neglected in recent years, but thanks to Turner Classic Movies it is once again being introduced to grateful audiences. Monty Woolley is fabulous as the brilliant writer and radio star, the curmudgeonly Sheridan (Sherry) Whiteside. Bette Davis is low key and perfect as his savvy personal secretary, Maggie Cutler, and Ann Sheridan is at her very, very best as the beautifully selfish and completely hilarious theatre star, Lorraine Sheldon. Reginald Gardiner,the fabulous English comedic actor and Jimmy Durante both sparkle in their brief but pivotal cameos. There are more classic one-liners in this script than you can count, but you'll enjoy trying!

This is one of the great film comedies of all time. Monty Woolley is priceless as the uppity celebrity who comes to dinner and stays and stays, causing havoc to a socially upper-crust household. The rest of the cast is superb too. Don't miss this film. It is a gem and a joy.

The recent death of John Raitt ("Who that?") reminds film watchers of how many terrific performances from Broadway or London's West End were permanently lost because of "brilliant" Hollywood casting decisions. Raitt, one of Broadway's best dramatic singers, was the original Billy Bigalow in "Carousel", but lost the role in Hollywood to Frank Sinatra. Ironically Sinatra quit the film version, and instead of returning to Raitt the producer chose Gordon McCrae. The reason was that McCrae had made several Hollywood musicals, so he had box office recognition. That he did not hold a candle to Raitt in the role was secondary. Raitt remembered this, and when he made the hit musical "The Pajama Game" he had his agent purchase the rights to portray his role on the screen. So his performance is in "The Pajama Game" opposite Doris Day. At least one of his performances were saved (and his performance as Bigalow is saved in television videos of various songs he did on shows like "Ed Sullivan" - so some of Bigalow is saved too]. Before television gave an opportunity to save parts of performances, Hollywood gleefully recast great performances, frequently hurting the final work. Zero Mostel (admittedly a difficult person to direct) was not cast as Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" by Norman Jewison (Topol was). Fortunately he did do Pseudolus in Richard Lester's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and he did "Rhinoceros". "The Man Who Came to Dinner" is a happy example of the right person playing the movie part. Kaufman and Hart based Sheridan Whiteside on Alexander Woolcott, their friend from the Algonquin Roundtable (with Heywood Broun, Dorothy Thompson, Robert Benchley, Edna Ferber, F.P.Adams, Marc Connally, and Harpo Marx). Their comedy is based on a fool-proof situation: a well known celebrity gets injured when invited to dinner by a fan. He is less lovable when one gets to know him. Besides not being patient with fools he is very tart tongued and he meddles when he thinks he is doing the right thing (or when his selfish interest intrudes). The play runs on the complications of Whitesides antics and the various caricatures in the play (Noel Coward and Harpo Marx, among others). It is, when the central role is played properly, excellent comedy. Wooley played the role originally (and bitingly). It was played equally well by Nathan Lane in a superb revival (fortunately it is on video). However the great Orson Welles badly let down the center of the play in 1972 on television. Wooley, the head of the drama department at Yale, and the friend of Cole Porter (who composed the "Noel Coward" song that is sung in the play by the caricature Beverley Carleton), had been acting in films since the middle 1930s. But it was not until he got this plum part that he was recognized as the original talent he was. For the rest of his life Wooley was a star of stage and (after this film) screen. The main problem in the film is the references to events of the 1940s. For example references to William Beebe and Admiral Richard Byrd. To update the references is not helpful (it was tried in the 1972 Welles version, and the jokes fell flat). In the Nathan Lane version the commercial interludes included newspaper headlines, reminding us of who Beebe and Byrd and the others were. The reference to calf's foot jelly is one of Wooley's put downs of the hapless Mrs. Stanley (Billy Burke). She made some calf's foot jelly for Whiteside. "Made from your own foot, no doubt.", Whiteside replies. This is not the only time that Alex Woolcott was the basis for a fictional character. In the novel that is the basis of "Laura" Waldo Lydecker is based on Woolcott (who was interested in murder, but not murderous).

Not so much a Christmas movie as it is a movie that happens to take place during the Christmas season. This 1942 farce has a rude and elitist author/lecturer/high society man falling on the icy steps of an Ohio businessman and being forced to stay in the man's home for weeks. Monty Wolley plays Sheridan Whiteside who seems to have contempt to one degree or another for everyone around him. He felt it beneath him to even be somewhere like Ohio in the first place, and he is determined to make life miserable for everyone once he is marooned there. Whiteside has a put down ready for almost everything anyone says to him. His lines of dialog pretty much range from condescending flattery to outright insults. And let it be said here, that he is almost always hilarious. Bette Davis plays Whiteside's personal secretary who falls in love with a local newspaper man and aspiring playwright. Davis confesses her intent to settle down with the handsome young man, and this is a matter of great concern for Whiteside since he would be nearly helpless without her. Even though his injuries have healed, he continues to act as though he is confined to a wheelchair for much of the picture. And most of the plot deals with Whiteside attempting to sabotage his secretary's blossoming romance. The film lasts for nearly two hours and seldom lets the viewer up for air. This is a film that you may have to see several times to notice every clever line or plot development. And since it was originally a play, most of it takes place in one room. That being the living room of the put-upon Ohio businessman and his brow-beaten family. Along the way, Whiteside begins meddling in the lives of others, as well. He practically incites a rebellion by the couple's teenage children. He comes up with more insults than one can count for his nurse. And some of the funniest moments deal with an aging doctor attempting to get Whiteside to look at his manuscript about his profession. Many famous people appear and are referred to throughout the film. Most of the pop culture references are really dated, but not so much that it really bogs the film down. The acting is wonderful. Jimmy Durante and Ann Sheridan liven things up in support. The film is rather smug in how it was written by and about famous people who obviously look down on normal Midwestern folk. But the humor is harmless, and all too enjoyable. 10 of 10 stars. The Hound.