Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Big Hangover (1950)


MGM
Directed by Norman Krasna
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)
(Turner Classic Movies)

Uneven story of a war veteran who finds that any amount of alcohol will get him silly drunk. While this may be a frat boy's dream, it gets him in all kinds of trouble at his new law firm. Van Johnson is awkward as the drunk, breaking out in song at the worst moments or seducing the boss's daughter Liz Taylor. The film also tries to work in some serious social commentary about the ethics of lawyers evicting a Chinese doctor from an apartment due to his race. This may have worked in another film, but juxtaposed with Johnson's drunk antics it's unconvincing. To top it off, Liz rejects Johnson not because of his drunk episodes but because he takes the moral high ground in the ethical dilemma!

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