Casanova Brown [Import]

This film stars Gary Cooper as a small town college professor and Teresa Wright as the society woman he meets and immediately falls head over heels in love with while on a trip to New York. He's trying to get a book published about his ancestor, the notorious lover Casanova. Her mother however who consults the astrology charts for every decision she makes tells the newlyweds that their marriage is doomed to fail. Cooper disagrees and a heated argument insues between the family which eventually leads to an anullment. Nine months later back in his home town Cooper is set to marry Anita Louise whose father played by Frank Morgan (the wizard from the Wizard of Oz) is adamantly against the marriage. Not because he dislikes Cooper but because he dislikes marriage! He turns in a very funny performance as the cranky father of the bride. On the day before their wedding Cooper receives a cryptic letter from a maternity hospital in Chicago saying they need to speak with him. He recounts the tale of his week long marriage to a woman in New York to Morgan and he encourages him to go to Chicago and see what's going on.

There's a very funny bit once he gets to the hospital and they escort him to a room and tell him to undress. He's quite perplexed seeing as how it's a maternity hospital and he's a man. They run him through a battery of tests as other expectant father's watch in disbelief while they wheel him around on a hospital bed. It turns out that Wright has had a baby girl and Cooper is the father. She plans to put her up for adoption and they ran all the tests on him to get his medical information. At first he is very surprised to know that he has a child but once he sees her he's completely smitten and also very upset that she will be given away. He can't talk Wright out of it so out of desparation he dresses like a doctor and kidnaps his little girl.

After checking into a hotel he enlists a bellman and a maid to help him take care of his daughter. He knows very little about babies but with the help of some books he gets the hang of it pretty quickly. My favorite scene is where he mistakes her rapid weight gain (which is normal for newborns) as a sign of a glandular problem. He sits on the bed looking at his daughter and very sweetly whispers to her 'daddy will love you no matter how big you get'. I don't want to give away the ending but it is a happy one.

The movie was released in 1944 and I can imagine it was quite shocking to see a single man taking care of a baby. Cooper even says in one scene how unfair it is that a man can run the country but they won't let him take care of his own child unless he's married. This is a very sweet and funny movie and I would encourage you to give it a look.

I had heard of this film but never got the chance to see it until recently on TCM. What a delightful film! I had forgotten that Gary Cooper made another film with the beautiful and talented Teresa Wright. She was not only beautiful, but made you feel like you were 'home' whenever she is on the screen. This is a sentimental film but also very funny- I will be buying the DVD so I can add this adorable film to my collection of classic films. What a pleasure to watch a film that actually has a storyline you can follow without the usual sex scenes in movies today, and best of all no profanity! When Teresa Wright's character has the baby you know Gary Cooper is the father, but we didn't have to see the conception to know how the baby got there....well...what a novel idea! Not showing an intimate moment between a man and a woman and we actually get it! Think about it...do we really need to see all that nonsense in the present day movies to get the point??? I think not! This is what makes these films timeless- Hopefully the movie studios will continue to release these wonderful classic films.

Gary Cooper gets maternal in CASANOVA BROWN, Sam Wood's 1944 comedy about the lengths a divorced father will go in order to remain close to his child. Co-starring Teresa Wright and Anita Louise, this is sadly one of the least-remembered titles from Cooper's long and varied screen career.

Casanova Brown (Gary Cooper), a mild-mannered scholar--and apparent distant relative of the renowned lover--is looking forward to settling down with lovely Madge Ferris (Anita Louise) until he receives the most curious letter from a Chicago maternity hospital. Casa's mind casts back to when he married college girl Isabel Drury (Teresa Wright), a marriage that was quickly annulled after Casa's disastrous first meeting with the in-laws, which resulted in their mansion being burnt to the ground! Evidently, Casa and Isabel's relationship produced a baby girl--and now unmarried Isabel needs to put her up for adoption. Horrified Casa smuggles his daughter out of the hospital, determined to raise her; and all hell breaks loose when, after Casa's secret cover is finally blown, both Madge and Isabel descend on the bewildered new father!

CASANOVA BROWN was quite possibly a very risqué film when it was first released. I can't imagine the movie enjoying a smooth passage through the censors office. Dealing candidly with the subject of unwed mothers, bachelor fathers and possibly even bigamy, CASANOVA BROWN walks a very fine line. The script by Nunnally Johnson (based on the play "Accidental Father" by Floyd Dell) zips along at a good pace and showcases Frank Morgan, playing Madge's gold-digging father, in one of his greatest performances. Sadly Teresa Wright fades into the background playing a very weak young woman who'd rather break up her marriage than leave her parents' bosom (her mother is played by talented Patricia Collinge, who also co-starred with Wright in the Hitchcock classic "Shadow of a Doubt" the previous year).

No extras but a solid transfer.