Four's a Crowd

MOVIE #1,243 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 11.20.23 • VOLUME LIV • I had no idea while I was watching this that it was directed by the guy who made Casablanca and isn’t that the magic of TRUE RANDOM in a nutshell, folks? **all the loyal readers of this website nod in unison** This is a Classic Hollywood Warner Bros. romcom starring Errol Flynn, made in the wake of he and Curtiz’s smash studio hit The Adventures of Robin Hood, wherein — according to Wikipedia — “Flynn [became] concerned about being typecast as a swashbuckler, and convinced Warner Bros. to cast him in other types of films, specifically screwball comedies,” like Four’s a Crowd!

You know how there's this saying “three's a crowd”? Well, hear me out… “FOUR'S a crowd.” That’s how I imagine the pitch went for this.

There's some good comic goofs in this, I have to admit. They all don't hit but it's a pretty high percentage. Ultimately it’s bogged down by its furiously busy plot. It was hard to stay focused on all Flynn’s scheming and the other moving parts. By the time the quad squad goes for their impromptu double marriage it's impossible to know how/why who ended up with who and what for (they even switch it up at the very end). Well, maybe it's not difficult to understand. Although, I don’t think it’s me honestly. Also via Wikipedia, this sentence in their plot description is just wrong: “Lansford hopes to gain tycoon John Dillingwell's (Walter Connolly) business for his public relations firm, and uses his position at Buckley's paper to drum up good press for Dillingwell.” He literally does the exact opposite: he drums up BAD press. Whatever, I also wasn’t really paying attention. I suppose we'll never know to what degree the 1937 screwball romcom Four's a Crowd is hard to parse. I watch too many movies, people. Looking forward to forgetting this one completely in 24-48 hours, but it’s fine.

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Four's a Crowd is a 1938 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell and Patric Knowles. The picture was written by Casey Robinson and Sig Herzig from a story by Wallace Sullivan. This was the fourth of nine films in which Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland appeared. It was released on August 4, 1938.