That Uncertain Feeling (1941)

Awesome Movie

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

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

An enjoyable comedy, set among rich white people in New York in 1940, with wonderful clothes for the women.As a traditional comedy, it uses stock types. We have the businessman who has become boring (Melvyn Douglas), his wife (the exquisite Merle Oberon) who wants an affair, the young musician (Burgess Meredith) who sweeps her off her feet, and the young secretary (Eve Arden) who secretly adores the businessman. To be comic, characters exhibit extreme selfishness, pursuing their own desires by manipulating or ignoring other people. We get this in spades from the three principals, forever playing tricks on each other to get what they want next. One of endless examples: the lover scratches the husband's gramophone record after dinner so that he can play the piano instead, only to find that the husband has locked the lid of the piano. Physical knockabout is another strong element. Two of the best moments are when the wife, stuck for an answer, repeatedly throws a faint and when the husband, told by his lawyer to assault her in front of witnesses, repeatedly fails to slap her face.What were contemporary jokes are still fun. Psychoanalysis and modern art are targets for satire, also (an in-joke) that New York was being taken over by Hungarians.Not the overall funniest, most stylish or slickest film around, but a pleasant diversion. Worth watching to see Merle Oberon at her peak.

Merle Oberon and Melvyn Douglas deal with "That Uncertain Feeling," a 1941 Ernst Lubitsch film based on a Sardou play. It's actually a remake of a silent Lubitsch, "Kiss Me Again." The film also stars Burgess Meredith and Eve Arden.Jill Baker (Oberon) is married to a successful businessman, Larry Baker (Douglas), but after six years, the bloom is off the rose. She goes to a psychiatrist, where, in the waiting room, she meets an opinionated pianist, Alexander Sebastian (Meredith), who introduces her to the world of art and music. She becomes fascinated with the world of culture and with him. Before you know it, Oberon and Douglas are divorcing, and Oberon and Meredith become engaged.The best scene occurs in the divorce attorney's office, when the secretary, Sally (Eve Arden) is asked to take a letter. In reality, she's supposed to witness Larry slapping Jill to help them get their divorce.There are some nice things in this film, including the bright performances of the leads, particularly the beautiful Oberon, whose presence shone in many a film.All in all, a disappointing Lubitsch, but Oberon's charm is quite special and always worth seeing.

A mild romantic comedy that's atypical of Lubitsch. Merle Oberon looks gorgeous. Her clothes are sensational. Melvyn Douglas is not credible as her crass insurance-executive husband. This is the man who taught Garbo to laugh in the same director's "Ninotcha" and was generally suave and somewhat iconoclastic. As the movie proceeds, he settles into a trick-playing husband not quite consistent with the man who've first met.Burgess Meredith is sort of wasted as the annoying pianist Oberon meets in a psychiatrist's waiting room. (Alan Mowbry is hilariously dry as the analyst. And in some ways, this is a comment on psychoanalysis.) The Meredith character is the most interest. It is a very convincing study in absolute narcissism. He may be accomplished, indeed; but whether he is or not, he is his own greatest fan and protector.There are swipes at modern art as well as those at analysis. In some ways, it's a little retrograde.But it's beautifully shot and the design is fabulous. This is the New York City we'd all love to live in. And Oberon looks ravishing. Her performance is convincingly comic, too, though she is so match for Eve Arden in an all too small role.

In "That Uncertain Feeling", good performances by the three lead actors give some life to a rather simplistic story. It is a mildly amusing movie, but there isn't enough to the plot or the script to make it any more than that.Melvyn Douglas and Merle Oberon play a married couple who seem to be reasonably content, but a chance meeting between the wife and an eccentric pianist (Burgess Meredith) suddenly threatens their whole marriage. Rather than choosing direct confrontation, the husband tries to use psychology to turn the situation in his favor, leading to some comic situations that only partially come off.The three leads are all pretty good, especially Meredith, who has the liveliest role. And Ernst Lubitsch directs with his usual dapper style. But there isn't really much of a story, and the behavior of the characters, while generally humorous, is too often completely implausible. So the movie is really never more than mildly entertaining.This will probably only be of particular interest to those who are fans of the director or one of the stars.