Zeus

Dulcy (1940)

• Director
  • S. Sylvan Simon
• Writers
  • Albert Mannheimer(screen play)
  • Jerome Chodorov(screen play)
  • Joseph Fields(screen play)
• Stars
  • Ann Sothern
  • Ian Hunter
  • Roland Young

  The 1922 George S. Kaufman-Marc Connelly play Dulcy was based on a delightful character created by columnist Franklin P. Adams: Archetypal "dumb wife" Dulcinea, who continually spouted cliches like "There's never a policeman around when you need one" and "Don't take any wooden nickels." Lynn Fontanne created the role of Dulcy on stage, followed in 1923 by Constance Talmadge in the first screen version, then by Marion Davies in 1929's Not So Dumb, the first talkie version of the Kaufman-Connelly comedy. This 1940 remake stars Ann Sothern as dizzy Dulcy, who hopes to improve her aviator boyfriend Gordon Daly's (Ian Hunter) business prospects by holding a fancy dinner party. The result is a disaster, but the introduction into the plotline of a Chinese war orphan (intended as a timely touch) solves everyone's problems. Like the original play, the film is stolen by Dulcy's ex-con butler, here played by "Big Boy" Williams. A very young Hans Conried has a cute running gag as a saturnine author, whose ongoing efforts to find solitude in a canoe are continually (and literally) scuttled by the zany Dulcy.