My Top 9 Favorite Christmas Movies: The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Adapted from Kaufman and Hart's hit play "The Man Who Came to Dinner," the movie is a parody of many classic actors (Harpo Marx, Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence) and the outlandish demands of the rich and famous. When famed yet acidic radio personality and critic Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) is invited to dinner by a prominent Ohio family, gravity becomes his enemy in slipping on their icy front steps resulting in a broken leg. Held up in this cooky small town, Whiteside ravages both hell and hilarity on the family and all associated ranging from celebrity friends, a gaggle of penguins, an octopus, and a sarcophagus, to name a few. All the while he attempts to hold onto his Girl Friday (Bette Davis) who has fallen in love and will leave him for a local paper man.

Bette Davis, of all people, brought the hit stage play to Warner Bros. believing it to be a good vehicle to lighten her career as long as John Barrymore would play Whiteside. "[She] urged me to use John Barrymore, but I couldn't risk it," explained Hal Wallis, executive producer, "The dialogue [...] was tremendously complicated, and Barrymore was drinking so heavily that he had to read his lines from cue cards." It led to many more candidates ranging from Orson Welles, Cary Grant, Frederic March, Charles Laughton. But no one even considered the man who created the role on Broadway, Monty Woolley!

A classmate to Cole Porter (who also wrote a song for the original play) and ex-professor, Woolley was an unknown actor on both stage and screen, but his portrayal of Whiteside would make him both widely known yet unfortunately typecasted in the years to come. "He was excellent. His acid, piercingly sharp delivery of the lines, spoiled-child mannerisms, and outbursts of petulant rage were perfection itself." (Wallis. Starmaker.) Even Whiteside's surprising tender moments with the Stanley's children is just as poignant as some of his acidic sharp delivery in amazing lines such as "You have the touch of a love-starved cobra" and "I lost my watch!"

Known as an ensemble piece with many actors synonymous to 30s and 40s film, the cast rounds itself out with the ditzy Billie Burke ("The Wizard of Oz"), the spastic Jimmy Durante (playing a version of Harpo Marx), Ann Sheridan ("I Was a Male War Bride," "Angels with Dirty Faces"), Grant Mitchell ("Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Arsenic and Old Lace"),  and Mary Wickes in her first film role, reprising the tortured nurse she originated on Broadway. 

Notable Links

Lux Radio Theater: Man Who Came to Dinner - Clifton Webb and Lucille Ball - YouTube

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) - Articles - TCM.com

Amazing Bloopers

Classic Movie Bloopers '42

(4:01, 6:07, 9:59)