While courting a young woman by mail, a rich farmer sends a photograph of his foreman instead of his own, which leads to complications when she accepts his marriage proposal.
Carole Lombard Charles Laughton William Gargan Harry Carey Frank Fay Joseph E. Bernard Janet Fox Lee Tung Foo Karl Malden Victor Kilian Demetrius Alexis Ricca Allen Effie Anderson Bobby Barber Marie Blake Tom Ewell Antonio Filauri Millicent Green Bobby Hale Paul Le Pere Grace Lenard Patricia Oakley Nestor Paiva Paul Panzer Stephen Soldi Joe Sully
Non desiderare la donna d'altri, Sabían lo que querían, Sabien què volien
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1940 Marathon - Film #74
Holy mackerel, what have I got into?
Have you ever found yourself wondering, what if Of Mice and Men included a love triangle?
Neither have I, and yet here’s the answer…
William Gargan helps Charles Laughton with a humorous Cyrano de Bergerac styled letter campaign to woo Carole Lombard from afar, but when she shows up on the farm ready for marriage the trouble begins.
This largely forgotten movie was a flop with a recorded loss of $291,000 which'd be over 5 million today, and yet still managed to earn William Gargan an Oscar nomination. Leave it to Laughton though, to swing for the fences with a massively over-the-top performance that may…
I enjoyed this one much more than most people seem to. Its biggest problem is a performance as broad as Norfolk from Charles Laughton as an Italian immigrant landowner. I can imagine director Garson Kanin attempting to tone him down but finding he was up against an unstoppable force. Laughton makes the film’s shift from light comedy to weighty drama trickier than it needed to be.
Opposite him, Carole Lombard gives a fantastic performance as the waitress who effectively becomes a mail-order bride. She excels at both the comedic elements of her situation and its fraught emotionality. Put Spencer Tracy in Laughton’s shoes with Tracy’s calmer yet still mercurial skills, and this would have been a classic. It teetered on the edge of four stars for me but an overly preachifying final reel lets it down.
They Knew What They Wanted (1940) does the same as in A Lady to Love (1930), the previously filmed version of this postal bride romance. Making the main character an extremely over-the-top ethnic persona. I guess that's part of the appeal about this play making Tony so utterly grotesque that you got to love him. Or Charles Laughton just wanted to mock/pay tribute to Edward G. Robinson's 1930 version of Tony. Either way, it makes it memorable.
In what must have been a rib, we have Frank Fay as a vicar. At one time leading man in the early 30s became such a despised egomaniac that he got frozen out of Hollywood shortly after rising to fame. Him with his…
Filme chatinho, tem seus momentos, mas o fato de tê-lo visto com dublagem em espanhol não ajudou muito, nem para apreciar a adorável voz de Carole e nem distinguir o suposto sotaque italiano de Charles Laughton, este com sua linda personagem a salvar o filme. Foi o primeiro filme de Karl Malden.
It has not just the plot elements, but also the actors to make a screwball comedy, but for some reason, it goes for drama instead.
Who did Charles Laughton's lash extensions???? OKKKAAYYYYY
girl, William Gargan's Joe has zero appeal.....i don't get it? Tony is jumping over things and climbing rooftops for you.....I want to marry Tony!
Very.....interesting(?) film starring two of my favorites, Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton. I love seeing Carole in dramatic roles, and she was phenomenal. The overall film just wasn't for me, it was a very bizarre mish-mash.
My dad recommended this when I told him I was running out of Carole Lombard movies. The only print I could find is so heavily deteriorated, and it continues to annoy me to see how poorly we've maintained many older films that aren't Casablanca.
I find the first half of the film more compelling than the back half. They set up an interesting love triangle that can only really make sense in Old Hollywood, but then they don't really do anything interesting with it.
As usual, the best part of this Carole Lombard movie is Lombard herself. William Gargan is also good (he's kinda underrated -- in both this and The Story of Temple Drake he plays a solid romantic…
Going into this movie, I was unaware of the play it was based on. As the story got started, I thought it was going to be like Cyrano de Bergerac or Roxanne. So, I was surprised when Laughton revealed his true identity early on. I caught on quickly and was fine with the story. I just wish it had been developed a bit better.
I wanted more affection and warmth between Lombard and William Gargan. Most of their scenes together were limited to scowling and/or anger. It could have been interesting (and emotional) if they had to work hard to keep their love a secret. Instead, I wasn't very invested in Lombard's relationship with either guy so I didn't care…
Wow! That was much more intense than I had anticipated!
Carole excelled at dramas as much as she did with comedies. In my humble opinion, she is vastly underrated for her range as an actress. She was absolutely radiant in this film. Charles Laughton is phenomenal — a scene stealer. This is the second time Charles and Carole worked together, and they proved to be a great team.
What a wonderful little film!
based on the cover and title, i was convinced i was gonna be watching a screwball comedy. boy was i wrong..
An RKO film of which I found a copy in Spain when I was browsing Charles Laughton's film career. Carole Lombard is Laughton's partner and the story is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play. What a treat!
Charles Laughton was used to playing extroverted characters, so it wasn't hard for him to play Tony Patucci, an illiterate farmer of Italian descent who made his living in Napa Valley.
"They Knew What They Wanted" deals with the sensitive subject of premarital sex in a small Italian community under the eye of the parish priest, the local doctor and the Hays Code censors.
It is clear that Garson Kanin's direction is secondary here, as the viewer's attention is focused on the…
