The Heavenly Body (1944)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Copyright 4 January 1944 by Loew's Inc. New York opening at the Capitol: 24 March 1944. U.S. release: April 1944. Australian release: 14 September 1944. 8,515 feet. 94 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Feeling neglected because Bill, her astronomer-husband, is preoccupied with a new comet, Vicky Whitley seeks some diversion. She meets an astrologer who tells her that, by the twenty-second of the month, she will fall in love with a man who has traveled widely. Vicky informs Bill of the prediction. Upset at her belief in astrology, Bill leaves her and goes to his observatory. Vicky patiently waits for her "man" to appear. After an uneventful day on the twenty-second, she telephones Bill; and admitting that she was wrong, asks him to return home. Just as midnight approaches, however...VIEWER'S GUIDE: Ideal for insomniacs.COMMENT: This wartime escapist farce is pretty tough sledding. The most generous assessment at our Hollywood Classics screening was that the wittiest thing about the movie was its title. A slight comedy spun out to 94 minutes, well beyond the point of tedium. A complete waste of some fine players. Admittedly, In the hands of a less talented director than Alexander Hall, who makes the most of the occasional jokes and mildly intriguing if far too repetitive situations, the results would have been considerably less than the just barely passable entertainment that this Heavenly Body offers.ADDITIONAL COMMENT: As bores go, The Heavenly Body is something rather special, in that it offers the ultra-luxury of being bored by no less a personage than Hedy Lamarr. - PM Reviews.

Directed by Alexander Hall, adapted by Harry Kurnitz, with a screenplay co-written by Walter Reisch, this comedy serves as proof positive that a good script is required for good comedy. Unfortunately, even though the film boasts a recognizable cast including William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, James Craig, Fay Bainter, Henry O'Neill, and Spring Byington, it fails to deliver many laughs and plays like an unhumorous version of Ernst Lubitsch's That Uncertain Feeling (1941).Powell plays a busy astronomer whose lonely, unsatisfied, gorgeous wife (Lamarr) of two years seeks an astrologer (Bainter), along with her neighbor (Byington), to find happiness. Lamarr does a pretty good job playing the airheaded woman (and half of the film's double entendre title, looking great in a silk nightgown), a brunette playing a stereotypical blonde (much like Merle Oberon did in the Lubitsch film), but the director seems to have thought having Powell was enough to generate laughs even with a weak script; it wasn't! Craig plays a well traveled news correspondent, who's currently an air raid warden, that doesn't appear until the film's middle third; just in time to make Lamarr believe that Bainter's prediction of a future love interest from afar has come true. Byington plays a busybody neighbor, and no friend to Powell's, that fuels Lamarr's interest in Bainter and her astrology. O'Neill plays Powell's exasperated boss, upset that the astronomer's interest in his comet discovery has waned, because of the turmoil in his marriage, just as they're about to announce it to the World.Powell's involved in some slapstick scenes, one with a garden hose and another dancing with Russians when his character experiences getting drunk for the very first time (interesting twist given his Nick Charles character in The Thin Man (1934) series), but the first scene comes across as mean and the second falls flat, literally. The writers must have thought that reusing screwball staples like revolving servants (the maid is fired and replaced with a new one almost daily; naturally, Connie Gilchrist plays one of these) and a cute, talented dog, would be funny as well. Craig gives a typically wooden performance, and not at all believable as a "man of the world", though the role required little (other than his Clark Gable- like looks) more than his presence for the purposes of this story. A now dated device is used to besmirch Bainter's character near the end; she's a ration hoarder. And, of course, a happy ending for the estranged couple is predictably delivered.

This is such a ridiculous and silly film that I found it impossible to watch all of it, as it was simply too exasperating and irritating. MGM must have realized they had a turkey on their hands because they employed seven screenwriters, including even the British novelist Michael Arlen, and hired a second (uncredited) director, namely Vincente Minelli, to try and save the film. But all failed. William Powell and Hedy Lamarr were the stars, and they did very well. But their valiant efforts and those of the seven screenwriters and two directors, were all for nothing. The fact is that it was a ludicrous project commissioned by idiots. The main theme of the film is that William Powell, an observational astronomer working at a big telescope (clearly mean to be Mount Palomar), has a beautiful but pin-headed wife who takes astrology so seriously that she will not let him touch her on Tuesdays and according to her chart she must leave him for another man she does not know. The irony of having Hedy Lamarr, probably the most intelligent female star in Hollywood, play the stupidest woman in the history of films, is extreme. The film is an absolutely disgusting attempt to make a comedy based upon the premise that women are unspeakably stupid. One does not have to be a feminist to want to throw up.

Obviously, the title of this movie described this actress perfectly. She had perfect chemistry with that thin man Powell. It was a different time and the country at war, but it brings back many memories of what went on during that period. ..the air raid wardens, the blackouts and Hedy waving at the window while Powell was telescoping her magnificence in that nightgown. A harmless and pleasant comedy.