The Wife Takes a Flyer

Franchot Tone plays an RAF flyer pretending to be a Dutch man in occupied Holland by speaking in his normal voice. Co-star Joan Bennett as a Dutch woman also speaks normally. That's because they're the co-stars in this war/spy comedy during the Second World War. Allyn Joslyn puts on a heavy German accent and speak with a growl over his normal tenor, but he's a Nazi.

Tone has been parachuted in for his mission. He is sheltered by Bennett's family, and is masquerading as her husband, whose divorce from Bennett takes place during the course of the movie; everyone in Holland, you see, hates the German occupation and helps him. Joslyn has a yen for Bennett -- quite natural -- and bullies her in what is supposed to be a funny/stupid manner.

It's the funny/stupid that makes me think this a poor comedy. The humor is the sort one applies to the butt of a joke one hates. It's appropriate for a propaganda comedy during war time, but it doesn't outlast the situation.

There are some good performances in here, particularly by Cecil Cunningham as the calm aristocrat in charge of an old ladies' home. Her performance is made better by the hysteria that infuses the rest of the picture, but it's too little and too late.