I Was a Male War Bride: Howard Hawks

Peter Wollen once wrote that most of director Howard Hawks' films could be reduced to two genres: the adventure drama and the crazy comedy. He went on to explain that Hawks' comedies usually centered around domineering women and the emasculation of men. The films Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940) immediately spring to mind as examples of these tropes. However, perhaps the single greatest example of the traditional "Hawksian" comedy is I Was a Male War Bride. Based on a true story, the film follows American Lieutenant Catherine Gates (Ann Sheridan) and French Army Captain Henri Rochard (Cary Grant) as they struggle to marry and move to the United States after the end of the Second World War. Due to the incredible American bureaucracy, the couple are forced to marry three times: civil, Army and church. Afterwards, they are repeatedly thwarted in their attempts to get Henri aboard the ship that will take him to his new country. See, the United States had passed a War Bride Act that facilitated the transportation of new European wives to America. However, the problem was that the Act only mentioned wives. It didn't say anything about husbands. The film that comes most immediately to mind when watching I Was a Male War Bride is Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985), another movie which depicted a world that was crippled by a preposterously complex and unwavering bureaucracy. But whereas Brazil ended tragically, I Was a Male War Bride ends with Cary Grant dressing in drag to infiltrate a ship full of European women. The film isn't as polished or focuses as some of Hawks' more infamous comedies. For one thing, Hawks seemed uncomfortable with dressing a male character in drag without reiterating several dozen times that it was the only way he could get to America. As a result, there are too many scenes where Grant and Sheridan confront confused and bemused Army personnel about their situation. But regardless, I Was a Male War Bride is absolutely charming. It isn't Howard Hawks at his best. But even "average" Hawks is well worth the watch.

7/10