Serenata messicana

I admit it, I'm just a sucker for these kind of romantic comedy fluff movies! I'd much rather watch a delightful and charming romp like this than some of the greatest film dramas made! I prefer to giggle rather than weep when I watch a film. Am I alone in this preference? Somehow, I doubt it.

Honeymoon stars Shirley Temple, all grown up (and looking prettier on film here than she ever did, before or after), and her character is in love with a soldier (Guy Madison) and wants to marry him, unfortunately in a foreign country. There's all kinds of paperwork to be done, so she tries to get the process expedited by using an older man, Franchot Tone (playing an American consul) as intermediary. He feels a sort of obligation to her because she's young and on her own (the soldier is supposed to meet her, but he gets sidetracked). Some very funny maneuverings keep placing her in Franchot's way, when he is trying to romance a lady of his own age, and his betrothed becomes jealous. Soon Shirley's character is developing a crush on the older man and becoming impatient with her own fiancée's boyish qualities.

There's a great pool scene where Shirley walks out in a pretty and modest bathing suit, but boy! does she look simply stunning! The film has a rather conventional, predictable ending, but we still enjoy it, because it feels right anyway and is pretty funny. I wonder why the script ended with "I now pronounce you ... legally married." How odd. What happened to "man and wife"?

TCM airs this May-December romance several times a year. Don't miss it, especially if you are a Shirley or Franchot fan. They're so cute together!

9 out of 10