My Life with Caroline

My Life with Caroline
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Lewis Milestone
Screenplay by	John Van Druten Arnold Belgard
Based on	The Train for Venice 1935 play by Louis Verneuil and Georges Berr
Produced by	Lewis Milestone Ronald Colman William Hawks
Starring	Ronald Colman Anna Lee Charles Winninger Reginald Gardiner Gilbert Roland
Cinematography	Victor Milner
Edited by	Henry Berman
Music by	Werner R. Heymann
Production companies	United Producers Corp RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	August 1, 1941 (1941-08-01)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$503,000^[1]
Box office	$830,000^[1]

My Life with Caroline is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Ronald Colman and Anna Lee, in her second Hollywood film^[2] and her first in a starring role.^[3] The supporting cast featured Charles Winninger, Reginald Gardiner and Gilbert Roland. The screenplay was written by John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard.^[4]

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Plot

Ditsy socialite Caroline, is married to wealthy publisher Anthony Mason.

While alone at a charity ball in Alpine Lodge, Idaho, Caroline flirts with Paco Del Valle, who wants to marry her. Paco asks her father Mr. Bliss for permission to marry his daughter. Bliss tells them that they need to ask her husband, and Caroline and Paco telegraph Anthony in New York.

As Caroline and Paco await an eastbound plane at the airport, Mason arrives. Seeing the two together, Mason recalls a nearly identical situation that occurred two years earlier when Caroline was enamored with sculptor Paul Martindale in Palm Beach, Florida.

Cast

Ronald Colman as Anthony Mason
Anna Lee as Caroline Mason
Charles Winninger as Mr. Bliss
Reginald Gardiner as Paul Martindale
Gilbert Roland as Paco Del Valle
Kay Leslie as Helen
Hugh O'Connell as Muirhead
Murray Alper as Jenkins
Matt Moore as Walters

Background

In 1940, William Hawks (brother of film director Howard Hawks), along with Ronald Colman, Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne, Lewis Milestone and Anatole Litvak, founded United Producers Corporation. The company intended to make 10 films for RKO, and My Life with Caroline was the first of five that were to star Colman.^[5]

The film's screenplay was written by John Van Druten and Arnold Belgard, adapted from Louis Verneuil's film The Train for Venice, which was based upon the play The Train for Venice, written by Verneuil and Georges Berr.^[4]

Milestone had tested actresses Miriam Hopkins, Paulette Goddard and Jean Arthur for the role of Caroline but decided on Anna Lee after seeing her in the British film Young Man's Fancy.^[6] My Life With Caroline was Lee's Hollywood debut in a starring role.^[3]

The film's sets were designed by the art director Nicolai Remisoff.

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "Mr. Colman locks with Mr. Gardiner in what is supposed to be a battle of wits, and thus until the end of the picture they merely pummel one another with flat gags. There must be some logical explanation why Lewis Milestone, who, after all, is no fool, should put his usually fine directorial hand to a story as vapid as this. There must be some further explanation why Mr. Colman, Mr. Gardiner and Miss Lee, who are all of them competent performers, should be wasted on such obvious frippery. But it's too much for our comprehension. Let's just call 'My Life With Caroline' time ill spent, and draw the curtain quietly thereon."^[4]

Box office

The film recorded a loss of $32,000.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Richard Jewel, "RKO Film Grosses: 1931-1951", Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 14 No. 1, 1994 p. 57
^ Boyd Magers; Michael G. Fitzgerald (2004). Westerns Women: Interviews with 50 Leading Ladies of Movie and Television Westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s. McFarland. p. 123. ISBN 0-7864-2028-6.
^ ^a ^b Tom Weaver (2006). Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s Through 1960s. McFarland. p. 261. ISBN 0-7864-2857-0.
^ ^a ^b ^c Crowther, Bosley (October 30, 1941). "The Screen". The New York Times. p. 27.
^ Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood. Grove Press. 2000. pp. 321–322. ISBN 0-8021-3740-7.
^ Anna Lee; Barbara Roisman Cooper; Maureen O'Hara (2007). Anna Lee: Memoir of a Career on General Hospital and in Film. McFarland. pp. 126–128. ISBN 978-0-7864-3161-8.