Together Again

You can tell from the image above time hasn’t treated this film well. And it’s a shame it hasn’t been properly restored, as it’s quite a funny latter-day screwball, quite a charming romance. Surprisingly so, as shamelessly as it does pander to its audience. The “together again” of the title refers to absolutely nothing about the film itself aside from the reunion of the successful Dunne/Boyer pairing; all the actors’ signature bits, together or separate, are clearly showcased here, and the plot turns on the contrivance of Dunne found in nothing more than a slip. And I object to none of this, even as I recognize it for what it is: I am, if sixty-five years late, precisely the audience they had in mind. Whereas in Love Affair and When Tomorrow Comes Dunne & Boyer spent at least as much of their screen time angsting over tragic circumstances as they did falling in love, this vehicle provides for non-stop flirtation, barb-trading and embracing, consummated in an awfully tender and well-nigh steamy stolen moment in the kitchen, unless that’s just me. Comedy or tragedy I’m easy prey for these two regardless, but it’s delight compounded to realize it’s also, and despite its very deliberate origins, a wonderfully fast-paced, fresh, and truly hilarious comedy. It dispatches its teenage challengers for the older pair’s hearts with the grace and charm The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer wishes it had, and nearly resolves a similar problem to that posed in Woman of the Year without offending a modern viewer. Nearly: old Hollywood may not have known what to do with a powerful woman except marry her off, but in her dignified and never self-important way Irene Dunne did, suave and playful Charles Boyer knew what to do with a woman like that, vaguely pervy and entirely suckered me knows what to do with them both, and I know you all know what you can do about that. That’s right.