One of the best screwball comedies of the era, written by two of Hollywood's greatest screen writers, Ben Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz. Stewart is a private detective who comes to grief trying to help his client who gets convicted of murder. He ends up on the lam with poetess Colbert in tow trying to prove his client innocent at the same time he is avoiding two very dim cops played hilariously by Edgar Kennedy and Nat Pendleton. Thin Man director W S Van Dyke gets a very lively performance out of Stewart who finally goes into disguise as an actor in a repertory company to catch the killer. Colbert will remind you of her Oscar-winning role in It Happened One Night but she is very good at this sort of thing and excellent here. I'm not sure why other reviewers were disappointed. The master touch of those involved is indelibly on the final product. Perhaps over the years, great comedies like this have been extensively mined by later imitators. There are many great moments, Colbert setting fire to her car, Colbert tackling a scoutmaster, Stewart with coke-bottle glasses stumbling into the brush, Stewart thinking he has ditched Colbert at the ferry only to --- ....Great stuff!
Review of It's a Wonderful World
