"Call it a Day" could have been a very good film, but thanks to poor writing, even the slickly polished film and quality actors could quite pull this off. My score of 4 seems a bit generous--but at least the film picked up as it progressed.
The film begins in a very loud household. The three children (two grown and one on the way to being grown) are pretty obnoxious. The least obnoxious of these was played by Bonita Granville--which is odd, as she made a career out of playing obnoxious teenagers! The brother is a bit more annoying. But the worst of all, by far, was played by Olivia de Havilland. Her character is completely fake and one-dimensional--and just appallingly badly written. It's odd, as de Havilland was an up and coming major star--with films like "Sea Hawk" and "Charge of the Light Brigade" to her credit. As for the parents, Ian Hunter plays a rather annoying out of touch guy and Alice Brady as the very patient mother. Of the five family members, only Brady comes off as a real human being--not some sort of goofy caricature.
"Call it a Day" occurs all during one day--as all five of the family members have brushes with love. De Havilland's was naturally annoying--and I hated every minute she was on screen. It's amazing, as she is among my very favorite actresses--and I adore her normally and would love to meet this fine lady. It must have killed her soul to play such a doofus and you can see the sort of roles that pushed her to push back at the studio! As for the rest, the son's romance is rather cute and Granville's is, well, weird. The only ones I really liked ended up being the parents' brushes with adultery. BOTH of them SHOULD have told their pursuers to get lost loudly and clearly--this did annoy me a bit, as it wasn't very realistic. But, I loved it when they showed both of them on their separate 'dates'. Bouncing back and forth and showing them BOTH saying and doing the same things was very clever. And, this is the rub--late in the film it gets really, really good--but the first portion AND every second de Havilland's character is on the screen are just badly written. It was as if the film was written by two different writers--one clever and one a knucklehead. Rarely is a film this uneven.
My advice? If you love Miss de Havilland, skip this one--it's one her few obvious misfires. And, apparently Neil Doyle's review would concur that she was wasted. Otherwise, it's a time-passer that just misses the mark.
The film begins in a very loud household. The three children (two grown and one on the way to being grown) are pretty obnoxious. The least obnoxious of these was played by Bonita Granville--which is odd, as she made a career out of playing obnoxious teenagers! The brother is a bit more annoying. But the worst of all, by far, was played by Olivia de Havilland. Her character is completely fake and one-dimensional--and just appallingly badly written. It's odd, as de Havilland was an up and coming major star--with films like "Sea Hawk" and "Charge of the Light Brigade" to her credit. As for the parents, Ian Hunter plays a rather annoying out of touch guy and Alice Brady as the very patient mother. Of the five family members, only Brady comes off as a real human being--not some sort of goofy caricature.
"Call it a Day" occurs all during one day--as all five of the family members have brushes with love. De Havilland's was naturally annoying--and I hated every minute she was on screen. It's amazing, as she is among my very favorite actresses--and I adore her normally and would love to meet this fine lady. It must have killed her soul to play such a doofus and you can see the sort of roles that pushed her to push back at the studio! As for the rest, the son's romance is rather cute and Granville's is, well, weird. The only ones I really liked ended up being the parents' brushes with adultery. BOTH of them SHOULD have told their pursuers to get lost loudly and clearly--this did annoy me a bit, as it wasn't very realistic. But, I loved it when they showed both of them on their separate 'dates'. Bouncing back and forth and showing them BOTH saying and doing the same things was very clever. And, this is the rub--late in the film it gets really, really good--but the first portion AND every second de Havilland's character is on the screen are just badly written. It was as if the film was written by two different writers--one clever and one a knucklehead. Rarely is a film this uneven.
My advice? If you love Miss de Havilland, skip this one--it's one her few obvious misfires. And, apparently Neil Doyle's review would concur that she was wasted. Otherwise, it's a time-passer that just misses the mark.