Never Say Die (1939)

Never Say Die (1939)

It may sound like a James Bond film, but, actually, this is a rather late, sort-of-Screwball Comedy or, at least, if done earlier with the proper cast and director it would have been one.

The details are racy enough for a pre-Code, and we not only get intimations of suspected homosexuality, but also two men sleeping in the same bed for several nights.

Two men is fine for the Hays Code, ...but a man and a woman together in bed?

No way!

Bob Hope plays something closer to his later recognizable screen personality (than other early efforts), John Kidley, a wealthy, cowardly hypochondriac who is engaged to an alleged murderess (Gale Sondergaard, who looks as lovely as ever, since she generally plays severe and severe-looking characters) only because he’s afraid of her.

Mickey Hawkins (Martha Raye) is an oil heiress pressured into marrying European nobility (Alan Mowbray) by her high-aspiring father despite being in a relationship with a lowly bus driver Henry Munch (Andy Devine).

When Hope’s stomach acid test results are confused with those of a dog, he is told he is not long for this world: In matter of days, he will digest himself from the inside out and disappear… Pffft!

In order to do something kind he proposes marriage to Raye in order to get both of them out of their predicaments, and when he dies in the next few days, she can marry her beau.

The trouble, of course, is that days go by and he seems to be doing fine healthwise.

Raye’s beau ain’t happy about that and has something to say about it!

It’s obvious that Hope and Raye will end up together, but in the meantime, there are some shaky times for the love-pentagon.

The film is a bit episodic and the feelings which little by little (or suddenly) appear or develop in some the cast are a bit much for the audience to swallow.

The film cries for better, smoother direction.

Alternatively, a gimmick such as a love potion would immediately solve the problem of people falling in love at the time when it’s most convenient for the plot.

Don’t’ get me wrong, this is a very funny film; it’s just that its pacing is a bit off.

It features an early, differently worded version of The Court Jester’s (1955) ‘pellet with the poison and the flagon with the dragon’ bit.