thank you for the welcome.
i didnt know there was a play, thanks for telling me.
The reason the film is so great is because it was first a great play by the great playwrights, George Kaufman and Moss Hart. They collaborated on other great plays that became hit films, including the comedic
You Can't Take It With You that in 1938 earned an Oscar for best picture and one for director Frank Capra. They also wrote
George Washington Slept Here, made into a 1942 film starring Jack Benny. Kaufman collaborated with others on the Marx Brothers plays
The Cocoanuts and
Animal Crackers, which they later filmed. He was one of the few writers Groucho and his brothers liked (the character played by Jimmy Durante in
The Man Who Came to Dinner is based on Harpo Marx).
The Sheridan Whiteside character in
Man Who Came to Dinner was based on Kaufman's and Hart's mutual friend, author/critic Alexander Woollcott, who like the character in the play really did greet people with "Hello, repulsive," and is said to have written the shortest theatrical review: "Ouch."
Monty Wooley created the title role on Broadway before starring in the movie, so he had years of rehearsal before it was filmed. He went on to play versions of the same character in other films, notably
The Bishop's Wife in 1947 with Cary Grant. Wooley also played himself as the real-life friend of Cole Porter in the 1946 film,
Night and Day, with Cary Grant portraying Porter. Unfortunately, the only true facts in that film is that Wooley was a friend of Porter's and Porter wrote some beautiful songs.
Anyway, as you said, it's a great film. Thanks for reminding us of it.