Behave Yourself! (1951)

After today, there are only 35 Sundays left in the whole entire year of 2020 and while it has been a miserable year (worst of my lifetime), we have to soldier on through it. So with that being said, I am here to present you with yet another Sunday At The Classics where we review films that were made before the 1970's which saw the golden age of Hollywood die in 1969. The film that I chose for today is a comedy from 1951 that was written and directed by George Beck (Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number!) entitled Behave Yourself!. The film stars Farley Granger (Strangers On A Train) as William Calhoun 'Bill' Denny, a guy who seems to have it all except for the fact that he can't remember that it's his anniversary. After unsuccessfully buying a gift, he is followed home by a Welsh terrier who his wife assumes is her anniversary gift, but there is just one problem. Every gangster and hoodlum in the city wants that dog and unfortunately Bill is entangled in this mess that includes the thugs, the cops, and a very nosy and suspecting mother in law. The film also stars Shelley Winters (Lolita) as Kate Denny, William Demarest (Mr. Smith Goes To Washington) as Officer O'Ryan, Francis L. Sullivan (Oliver Twist) as Fat Freddy, Margalo Gillmore (Peter Pan) as Mother, Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man) as Pinky, Hans Conried (The Patsy) as Gillie The Blade, Elisha Cook Jr. (Rosemary's Baby) as Albert Jonas, and Glenn Anders (M) as Pete The Pusher.

I was actually very impressed with the film and I think not only was it that the writing for it was very good, but the acting was also on point. The film definitely would have not worked if it wasn't for these actors like Granger, Winters, Lon Chaney Jr. (which was nice to see him do something different than horror), Conried, and Demarest. All of them were absolutely fantastic in the film and they made it so enjoyable to watch. It's the classic comedy where all these gangsters or thugs want something that someone innocent stepped into unknowingly and bad things happen that make him look like he could be guilty as well, but we all know he is not. The misadventures that follow based on a newspaper ad are just hilarious and made the film worthwhile. To be perfectly honest though, Granger does deserve the MVP award because he was the star of the film and he commanded it well with his bumbling comedy. The only thing that kind of bothered me was that when the dog would bark, it sounded unauthentic almost like it was a human barking because they couldn't get the sound right. That is probably my only real criticism of the film is the dog barking sounds because other than that I enjoyed the film a lot. Films are enjoyable no matter what era they come from because comedy is comedy and you have to appreciate how far film has come in the last 70 to 100 years. That is why we do Sunday At The Classics, to the films of yesteryear and know just how far we have come. That is why I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade.