JohnHowardReid Copyright 24 January 1942 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 1 January 1942. U.S. release: 24 December 1941. Australian release: 1 October 1942. 10,447 feet. 116 minutes. (Available on an excellent Warner DVD).BACKGROUND: Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman based this 1939 comedy hit on the well-publicized eccentricities of their friend and boon companion, Alexander Woollcott, raconteur, essayist, and critic. It was even dedicated to him by the authors, "For reasons that are nobody's business." When Woollcott refused to play the leading role on Broadway (a decision he later admitted regretting, when reporters asked why he had suddenly agreed to play himself in a revival), former Yale professor Monty Woolley was engaged to impersonate Whiteside, one of the longest and most demanding character roles ever written. After a somewhat shaky start on opening night, the hitherto unknown actor hit his stride and gave, in the words of the World-Telegram critic, Sidney B. Whipple, "one of the truly great comic performances of our times."NOTES: The play opened on Broadway at the Music Box on 16 October 1939 and ran a highly successful 739 performances. In numerous revivals and stock company presentations, Whiteside has been played by such actors as Clifton Webb, Robert Morley, Alexander Woollcott himself, and even co-author George S. Kaufman – the last in a Bucks County Playhouse production in the summer of 1940 in which Moss Hart played the Noel-Coward-like playwright Beverly Carlton, whilst Harpo Marx himself (speaking on stage for the first time in 25 years) played the Harpo-Marx-like Banjo. On Broadway, Woolley was supported by Edith Atwater, Carol Goodner, John Hoysradt, David Burns and Mary Wickes (who repeats her role for the film version). The producer was Sam H. Harris, the director, George S. Kaufman. Oddly, although Monty Woolley will always be associated with this role, he was not nominated for any awards. In fact the film received absolutely no Hollywood award nominations at all. Incidentally, this was not Woolley's film debut, as many critics thought at the time. He had already appeared in Live, Love and Learn, Nothing Sacred (both 1937), Arsene Lupin Returns, Everybody Sing, Girl of the Golden West, Three Comrades, Lord Jeff, Artists and Models Abroad, Young Dr Kildare (all 1938), Midnight, Man About Town and Dancing Co-Ed (all 1939). The movie did not make Bosley Crowther's Ten Best list in The New York Times, although he did give it an "honorable mention" as a runner- up. Would you believe that Monty Woolley was cited for Best Acting by the National Board of Review in 1942 – but not for his performance in this film, but for The Pied Piper? However The Man Who Came To Dinner did achieve 6th placing in The Film Daily's 1942 poll of American film critics. And it was Third to Yankee Doodle Dandy and King's Row as Warner Brothers' top-grossing domestic release of 1941-42.The play cost Warners a whopping $250,000 to purchase. Davis wanted John Barrymore for Whiteside, but he was too far gone to remember his lines. Actors tested and rejected included Charles Laughton, Robert Benchley, Orson Welles, Fredric March, and Laird Cregar.COMMENT: Despite an improbable and unconvincing Third Act in which this delicious comedy of manners degenerates into farce, this is a marvelously entertaining film. Woolley of course gives the performance of his career, making the most of his pointedly caustic lines. And he is given some solid, but not 100%, support. Some of the players are a mite too theatrical and heavy-handed, while others — particularly, sad to say, Jimmy Durante who is hopeless at impersonating Harpo Marx — are miscast. But we love George Barbier, Mary Wickes and Reginald Gardiner, and it's a joy to see the aristocratic Laura Hope Crews partnering the diminutive Chester Clute. The screenwriters have done little to disguise the stage origins of the piece. There is some opening out and additional material at the beginning, but the characters still basically make their entrances into and exits from the one living-room set – magnificently expanded though it is. The photography sparkles of course and the film editing is smooth as silk, but one wonders exactly what a high- priced director like Keighley actually did beyond saying "Action!" and "Cut!" and "Print it!" I tend to agree with Otis Ferguson's complaint in The New Republic: "In direction, it is often a case of over-emphasis: big takes, exaggeration, confusion, too much noise."But not even inept or misplaced or heavy-handed direction can mar Monty Woolley. The way he pounds out those cleverly scripted, studied insults, he makes The Man solidly entertaining. What more can you ask?

l_rawjalaurence Let's face it, if viewers are not at least acquainted in some way with the socio-historical context that inspired Hart and Kaufman's classic play (and William Keighley's film), they are going to find it slightly difficult to understand.If we are not aware that Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) is an affectionate parody of Alexander Woollcott, at the time a national celebrity due to his radio program, then we will not really understand just what a monster he actually is; the former doyen of the Algonquin Round Table group who took malicious pleasure in insulting everyone just for the sake of it. George S. Kaufman, another member of that Round Table, uses Whiteside both to criticize yet celebrate Woolcott's monstrosity.Likewise we need to understand how Reginald Gardiner's Beverley Carlton is a parody of Noel Coward: another member of the Round Table, he had become a star on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the epitome of the rather effete English upper class twit. Gardiner is asked to play that role in Keighley's film, and very funny he is too.Banjo (Jimmy Durante) was apparently baaed on Harpo Marx: not much of Harpo's qualities emerge in Durante's performance, but instead we see Schnozzle emoting at all throttle, having the chance to jingle away at the piano keys as well as providing one of the main means by which the complicated plot can be wrapped up.There is a story of sorts, but in truth Keighley's film is something of a showcase for the talents of actors performing against type. Bette davis's Maggie Cutler is strangely muted, as she tries and mostly succeeds to put up with Sheridan's whims, while the grande dame role (that Davis customarily played) is here given to Ann Sheridan. Sheridan grasps the opportunity with both hands, offering a series of stylized cameo performances - appropriate to her belief in herself as a "great actress" - reminiscent of Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EYE (1950).Apparently Davis was not entirely satisfied with the casting of Woolley in the central role. Yet perhaps that latent antagonism helped the film rather than hindered it - although professing enduring respect for the celebrity, Maggie holds his whims in infinite contempt. As a former Yale University academic, Woolley approaches the role of Whiteside with the same kind of bravura energy that he might have done had he been lecturing first year undergrads. He is so firmly convinced of his own rightness that he remains utterly imperious to anyone else's feelings.THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER might be a period-piece, but is nonetheless a very funny one.

gavin6942 When acerbic critic Sheridan Whiteside slips on the front steps of a provincial Ohio businessman's home and breaks his hip, he and his entourage take over the house indefinitely.Four of the leading characters are based on real-life personalities. Sheridan Whiteside was inspired by celebrated critic and Algonquin Round Table member Alexander Woollcott, who eventually played the role on stage; Lorraine Sheldon, by musical stage actress Gertrude Lawrence; Beverly Carlton, by playwright and renowned wit Noël Coward; and Banjo, by Harpo Marx.Whiteside comes off as a cross between WC Fields (with his witty remarks) and the Simpsons' Comic Book Guy (with his mocking condescension). He is both a joy to watch, and simultaneously a wretched monster to be reviled. The romance is really the thread that ties everything together, but it hardly carries the film the way Whiteside does.

Claudio Carvalho In Mesalia, Ohio, the president of the local women's club Mrs. Ernest Stanley (Billie Burke) is the wife of the prominent ball bearings manufacturer Mr. Ernest Stanley (Grant Mitchell) and she is in rapture since the famous lecturer and critic Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Wooley) will have dinner with her family.When Whiteside arrives with his secretary Maggie Cutler (Bette Davis) at Stanley's home, he slip on the ice on the stairway n the front door, he breaks his hip and the diagnosis of the local Dr. Bradley (George Barbier) requires that Whiteside shall stay in a wheelchair confined in the house. The egocentric, selfish and despicable Whiteside demands the control of the entire house and tells that he will sue Mr. Ernest Stanley in an exorbitant amount.While the family lives hell on earth in their own home, Maggie falls in love with the owner of the local newspaper Bert Jefferson (Richard Travis) and quits her position. However, the abusive Whiteside invites the vamp actress Lorraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan) to meet Bert expecting that she seduces him and Maggie stays with him.I had the greatest expectations with "The Man Who Came to Dinner" based on the name of my favorite actress ever Bette Davis and the IMDb Rating of 7.6. Unfortunately I found this film dated and unfunny, and even overrated. I did not find the abusive behavior of Sheridan Whiteside funny in any moment and his deplorable attitudes are actually nasty. The fool Mrs. Ernest Stanley may deserve part of the cruelties for her silly behavior but anyway I did not laugh while watching this comedy. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Satã Jantou Lá em Casa" ("Satan Had Dinner at Home")