O Homem que Se Perdeu

I stretched to give this film eight stars because the screenplay is not worthy of that. The script is not only choppy, with many holes in places, but it's confusing, especially with the opening. It's never clear what Malcolm Scott's background or standing is - his business, family, stature, etc. Rather, the film is replete with references to him as a womanizer, adulterer, probable alcoholic, maybe even a crook and all around ne'er-do-well. His real background and physical problems are just touched on toward the end.

My stretch in rating "The Man Who Lost Himself" is based on the acting. First, of Brian Aherne's character, especially after his John Evans gets into the role of his look-alike, Malcolm Scott. And second, by the wonderful cast of some of the top comedy supporting actors of the period. Any comedy that includes S. Z. Sakall or Sig Ruman is bound to be good if only for their presence and roles. They aren't rollicking roles here, but play very nicely with Aherne's character(s). Henry Stephenson is another supporting actor who always adds a nice touch to any film he is in. And Kay Francis is very good as Adrienne Scott.

It's sort of amusing when someone comments on a movie made in 1941 as similar or identical to one made 50 years later. I've read some reviews like that. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Or is this some sort of different prescience - in reverse, maybe (defying the very logic of the meaning)? There have probably been three dozen or more movies made based on two characters who look alike (doppelganger is the term for look-alikes who are not related, as in identical twins, or look-alike cousins).

Anyway, this movie is based on a 1918 English novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. In it, American Victor Jones travels to London and finds that he's an exact look-alike of a member of the British aristocracy. Other than the fact that this and many other movies have doppelgangers as the core of the stories, there is little similarity in plots.

Here are a couple favorite lines from this film.

Adrienne Scott, "You know, you really shouldn't leave boobie woobie all alone in the library. She might be frightened by a book."

John Evans, "I didn't sleep a wink. I don't know what bothered me more - my thoughts or your snoring."

The idea is brilliant and perfect as a starter for a brilliant intrigue, whether for a thriller or a screwball comedy. It looks as if both are getting triggered. Brian Aherne comes back to New York a ruined man after a stranded business deal from Puerto Rico, and his business partner down there tells him to swim back home to Puerto Rico. Brian Aherne gets infuriated by his frustration and takes an awful lot of drinks, telling everybody he meets to repeat after him that his colleague Mr. Phillips is a skunk. One of the other guests he meets at the bar happens to look exactly like him, they could be mistaken for each other's doubles, that other man also has something to drown in drinks, so they go celebrating together. That other man never comes back. Brian Aherne is taken for him and brought home to a luxury apartment where he has every difficulty in the world to convince everybody that he is not the right man, and the more he insists, the less he is believed. Then the comedy bolts off tying itself up in knots of inextricable complications, and two women are involved, his wife and his mistress, who only wants to extort her "booby-wooby" for money. Kay Francis is the wife, always excellent, and she eventually finds out that she is a widow, since the real man was lost in an accident at night. In spite of all the complications and muddled up intrigues, something seems to come out right in the end, while the one who really has a hard job to get through is the wonderful old Hungarian butler S. Z. Sakall, crowning the comedy with his constant worries.

This 1941 Universal comedy pairs two attractive stars in a not-so-screwball comedy that tries hard but has some problems. Aherne plays two look-alike men who switch places after drinking in a bar. When he wakes up the next morning he finds he mistaken for a millionaire married to Kay Francis. As he tries to convince people he's not the rich guy, he discovers the millionaire was just out of a nut house and had a shady history of embezzlement, adultery, and forgery. But the more he insists he's not the millionaire, the more everyone is convinced he's still nutty.

So-so but complete copy includes scenes listed as missing in other reviews, but probably don't really help much. The plot is just too far-fetched ends up repeating itself. Aherne and Francis are good together but the script and director (and maybe the editor) deflate the soufflé.

Co-stars include S.Z. Sakall, Nils Asther, Henry Stephenson, Dorothy Tree, Janet Beecher, Henry Kolker, Sarah Padden, Sig Ruman, and Marc Lawrence as a gangster named DeSoto. Billy Benedict has a nice bit as the messenger boy in the elevator. Silent star Charles Ray is supposedly in the cast in an unnamed part.

Brian Aherne has come from Puerto Rico for an important deal. But his partner has betrayed him and he's stuck. He decides to drink a lot. Semi-sozzled, he meets himself. That is, he meets his exact double, who has been spending time in the loony bin. They get further drunk, the second Aherne sends the first back to his house, and quickly dies in a traffic accident. But the people in the house think he's the second Brian Aherne, a wealthy man who owns a department store, and that the dead man is the first Aherne. As he wanders befuddled through this new life, he learns about his estranged wife, Kay Francis, his mistress, Dorothy Tree, and the man who has been stealing money from his department store and now wishes to buy it, Henry Kolker.

It's one of those pixilated comedies in which everything, we expect, will eventually turn out very well for Aherne, not for anything he does, but because the situation demands it. Aherne tries his best, but he never seems to be involved with what's going on -- and why should he? It's not his life -- and director Edward Ludwig seems more interested in making things come out right in 72 minutes than any subtlety in performance or possible subtext, beyond the fact that the rich seem more interested in money than anything else. Still, there's S. Z. Sakall, Henry Stephenson, Sig Ruman, Marc Lawrence, and other old pros who take their time on the screen to make us smile.

John Evans (Brian Aherne) is shocked to meet his exact double, the rich man Malcolm Scott (also Aherne). However, after Scott is killed, everyone thinks Evans is this rich guy...including Scott's wife (Kay Francis). However, John likes the wife and after a while realizes it might not be so bad to BE Malcolm. But can he manage to right the screwed up life that Malcolm left him? And, just how much of a bad guy was Malcolm and what sort of dirty work was he doing??

If this sounds a lot like the 1993 film "Dave", well then you, too, see pretty much what the movie is like. This isn't to say that "Dave" is a copy or remake...more a reworking. And, as such both are much more than comedies and have a lot of nice romantic elements.

It's rather interesting that the film co-stars Kay Francis, as this once HUGE Hollywood star's career was in decline...yet she was given such a dandy script. Overall, it's a lovely film...one of Aherne's and Francis' best....with excellent acting, direction and more.Pretty much the film "Dave".