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The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley, 1942)
I honestly believe that anyone who loves Arsenic and Old Lace and/or Harvey will love this film. It's a tale about world-famous, egotistical critic/commentator Sheridan ("Sherrie") Whiteside (the awesome Monty Woolley), who, against his will, comes to dinner with a Midwestern couple, but slips on their frosty front porch and breaks his leg. He proceeds to turn the life of the couple and their young adult children upside down by taking over their home, as well as trying to torpedo the blossoming romance of his secretary (the wonderful Bette Davis) with the local newspaper editor (Richard Travis). Other major characters include a vain movie actress (Ann Sheridan, the "Oomph Girl" and the female version of Sherrie) whom Sherrie uses to try to steal Bette's beau, an actor/playwright/Renaissance Man (patterned after Noel Coward) played hilariously by Reginald Gardiner, the effervescent, sex-crazed Banjo (Jimmy Durante) [think: Harpo Marx with a voice], and the young nurse (Mary Wickes) who Sherrie constantly bombards, physically and verbally, at will.
Sample line of Sherrie speaking to his nurse: "My great aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy every day of her life. She lived to be 102, and when she'd been dead three days, she looked better than you do now!"
The nurse has to wait about an hour further into the flick to retort, but it's a doozy: "I am not only walking out on this case, Mr. Whiteside, I am leaving the nursing profession. I became a nurse because all my life, ever since I was a little girl, I was filled with the idea of serving a suffering humanity. After one month with you, Mr. Whiteside, I am going to work in a munitions factory. From now on, anything I can do to help exterminate the human race will fill me with the greatest of pleasure. If Florence Nightingale had ever nursed YOU, Mr. Whiteside, she would have married Jack the Ripper instead of founding the Red Cross!"
I honestly believe that anyone who loves Arsenic and Old Lace and/or Harvey will love this film. It's a tale about world-famous, egotistical critic/commentator Sheridan ("Sherrie") Whiteside (the awesome Monty Woolley), who, against his will, comes to dinner with a Midwestern couple, but slips on their frosty front porch and breaks his leg. He proceeds to turn the life of the couple and their young adult children upside down by taking over their home, as well as trying to torpedo the blossoming romance of his secretary (the wonderful Bette Davis) with the local newspaper editor (Richard Travis). Other major characters include a vain movie actress (Ann Sheridan, the "Oomph Girl" and the female version of Sherrie) whom Sherrie uses to try to steal Bette's beau, an actor/playwright/Renaissance Man (patterned after Noel Coward) played hilariously by Reginald Gardiner, the effervescent, sex-crazed Banjo (Jimmy Durante) [think: Harpo Marx with a voice], and the young nurse (Mary Wickes) who Sherrie constantly bombards, physically and verbally, at will.
Sample line of Sherrie speaking to his nurse: "My great aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy every day of her life. She lived to be 102, and when she'd been dead three days, she looked better than you do now!"
The nurse has to wait about an hour further into the flick to retort, but it's a doozy: "I am not only walking out on this case, Mr. Whiteside, I am leaving the nursing profession. I became a nurse because all my life, ever since I was a little girl, I was filled with the idea of serving a suffering humanity. After one month with you, Mr. Whiteside, I am going to work in a munitions factory. From now on, anything I can do to help exterminate the human race will fill me with the greatest of pleasure. If Florence Nightingale had ever nursed YOU, Mr. Whiteside, she would have married Jack the Ripper instead of founding the Red Cross!"