Theodora Goes Wild

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Frances H The screenwriters really let a great cast down big time! Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/24 Full Review Laura L Theodora (Irene Dunne) is a provincial writer who wrote a best seller under the pen name Caroline Adams. She 'goes wild' following a trip to New York to meet her publisher. There she met and fell in love with the son of a banker who went against his father's will and he became a painter. This movie is about Theodora's journey from simplicity to extravagance wrapped up in a beautiful romantic comedy. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Irene Dunne breaks out of small town conventions in "Theodora Goes Wild," a 1936 comedy also starring Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell and Spring Byington. Dunne plays Theodora, who lives a sterile life with her two aunts in a small, Puritan, judgmental town. However, she's got them all beat because she's living a double life - in New York City, she's Caroline Adams, a hot romance novelist who put the capital L in LOVE. Her scandalous best-seller is in the process of being banned by the town literary society. While in New York visiting her disapproved of uncle, she meets a friend of her publisher's, the flirtatious, irreverent Michael (Douglas). He doesn't know her real name or her literary alter ego so to prove to him she's no prude, she gets drunk and goes to his apartment - of course, she leaves screaming - but in doing so, drops a few papers that tell him who she is and where she lives. He soon shows up in her home town as a down on his luck man seeking work and she's more or less blackmailed into giving him a job as the family gardener. This is a delightful comedy buoyed by the marvelous acting of Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas. The points are hit a little too hard, however, so that both characters come off as very annoying and exasperating at times. The fault lies in the script, because I don't think those two actors ever made a wrong move. Douglas, who in later life would prove himself one of the great actors of all time, sails through this film as he sailed through so many others in roles that gave no hint of his enormous abilities. Here he's charming, smooth and attractive, inspiring Theodora to take some risks - though he's got a few skeletons he fails to mention to her. Dunne is great as the staid spinster who becomes the talk of New York with her wild outfits, saucy attitude, and smart remarks. Underneath it all, of course, it's a love story some innuendo you don't find in a lot of '30s comedies, which adds to the fun. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie is pure fun. Less well-known than other comedies of its period, "Theodora" is witty and provocative. Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas have real chemistry, and the rest of the cast is made of the welcome character actors (and terriers) that so delightfully populate 30s comedies. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review steve d It has not aged well at all. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Theodora Goes Wild is a film that took some time to work its magic on me. I like the setup of a small-town girl who writes a scandalous book under an assumed name, who then has to hide the truth from her friends and family for fear of being ostracized in the conservative town she lives in. However, shortly after we see the plot set in motion, we meet the male lead and he is obnoxious. From the very beginning Melvyn Douglas is playing a man that you don’t want to be around, and soon he doubles down on this annoying behavior. There’s one whistling scene that almost had me muting the TV. It was frustrating for me, because anyone can foresee that the plot intends for our leading lady to fall head over heels in love with this man, and I couldn’t stand the way he was behaving. Little did I know that all of this was completely necessary, and in fact it is vital in order for the second half of the movie to work. When we truly see Irene Dunne “go wild” as the title implies, all the pieces fell into place and I had to step back and applaud the writers for the way they constructed this story. Despite my earlier reservations, I was suddenly on board with the romantic part of this rom-com, and was enjoying all the crazy antics that felt annoying in the first act. My only complaint that didn’t go away with this twist in the second half is the fact that this movie uses the classic trope of two lovers kept apart because one simply won’t have a frank conversation about what is going on in their life. It always drives me crazy when stories manufacture drama simply by having a character keep something important a secret for no good reason. Finally, I have to mention that I liked how Theodora Goes Wild indicted small-town societies that chastise improper behavior but constantly crave to learn more about those things. It’s a cute film that has a good number of laughs, and a smart script that managed to impress me in a way I never expected. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/15/19 Full Review Read all reviews

Theodora Goes Wild

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