Bill Burnett, a resident of Bali, visits New York City, meets and falls in love with Gail Allen, the successful manager of a Fifth Avenue shop, who is determined to remain free and independent. Bill proposes, Gail declines and Bill goes home to Bali. But a young girl, Rosie, and Tony the Window Cleaner, who dispels advice on every floor, soon have Gail thinking maybe she was a bit hasty with her no to Bill's proposal. Ere long she discovers that she does love Bill and can't live without him. She goes down to Bali to give him the good news. He learns that he is soon to marry Noel Van Ness. She goes back to New York City.
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Last night I watched HONEYMOON IN BALI, with Fred MacMurray and Madeleine Carroll. Before I sat down to watch it, I violated one of my cardinal rules and read user reviews on the IMDb plus Maltin's comments (usually, I do that after I finish watching something). I expected Maltin in particular to call it fluff, since it was a rom-com from the late 30s made in the way that only Paramount could make them. So as I started watching, the first twenty minutes are rather slow and almost tedious. I thought to myself, why did Maltin give this three stars out of four...why do IMDb users love this film so much? But after another half hour, it became very clear-- the characters suddenly came to life and the romance was believably and beautifully told. It had worked its magic on me, because the actors found something in those characters-- and the script itself had developed the characters so well that you couldn't help but love the film. I plan to watch it again in the very near future.
"Honeymoon in Bali" is a sweet romance that has inexplicably fallen into the public domain. Often, public domain films suck--but this one is far from sucky.The film is about a nice guy who has returned to the States to visit, though Bill (Fred MacMurray) lives in Bali (that's a very large island in Indonesia, if you care). After having a fortune teller inform her she'd meet someone, Gail (Madeline Carroll)--a high-powered career woman. The two kind of hit it off, but Gail isn't convinced that Bill is the man the fortune teller told her about...after all, he is moving back to Bali and she has her career. She also has a boyfriend already, and Eric (Allan Jones) seems like a very nice guy. However, when Gail meets Bill's young ward (Rosie, played by Carolyn Lee), her heart is captured. But how can Gail have Bill and Rosie in her life? After all, they're returning to Bali and she has her career...as well as Eric.The scenes between MacMurray and Carroll were very nice and they worked well together. However, the scenes between Carroll and young Lee were magical. Lee was perfect--adorable, but not too much and seemed very natural. I do wonder why she only had a few screen credits. Regardless, due to a nice story, very good dialog and some nice characters (Eric is exceptionally sweet), the film is just fun and a decent date film. Well worth seeing and available on YouTube and most likely also from archive.org since it's a public domain film.
What an enjoyable piece of fluff. Though I'd say it was a bit more than a piece of fluff, really, as there is subtlety galore, and philosophy, and irreverence and some macabre/screwball humour when the love rival for Fred MacMurray says in an offhand way that she'd attempted suicide but then got married, but then found it hard to be sad when her husband was killed playing polo... That kind of humour would raise eyebrows even today! Alan Jones sings his manly heart out while wearing a pencil moustache, and Madeleine Carroll says some very clever and deep things about the nature of female independence. You can tell that the actress really thought these lines were quite wise and put a lot of feeling into them, even though the film is at pains to prove the opposite view. Likewise subtle is the fact that MacMurray is a bit of a cad, not a straightforward hero. I actually hated him for a good few minutes. The small roles are played with great skill and elan, particularly the fortune teller with her blithe, witty delivery and of course Window-cleaner philosopher Akim Tamiroff, whom I ended up applauding out loud for his sheer verve, and the comedy and character he packs into each gesture. The fly in the ointment, to this cow-poke anyway, is the truly cringeworthy little girl. Ugh! You can just see her pushy mother urging her on to become the next Shirley Temple. Sorry dear, that requires talent, not just a shrill voice and a pudgy face.
Wow! I picked this up today from the $4.99 DVD bin at K-Mart. What a pleasant surprise. It's your typical romantic story of boy meets girl, boy looses girl, ect., but there are some very fine moments.The film opens with Madeline Carroll having her fortune told. It's an outrageous fortune, but as the story unfolds we see it coming true to life. Fred MacMurray is great in this film. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't compare to his role in 'The Apartment,' but I was shocked when I realized that this film was made in 1939.The open and candid talk of one of the characters attempted suicides (done in a VERY light-hearted way), makes me wonder if this film was passed by the Production Code.