Synopsis
It's a serious problem for a lady with the hiccups, and he is it!
A happily married woman sees a psychoanalyst and develops doubts about her husband.
That Uncertain Feeling
1941 Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
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Alternative Titles
Lo que piensan las mujeres, Illusions perdues, Quell'incerto sentimento, Ehekomödie, Korsdrag i paradiset, הרגשה לא בטוחה, No Que Pensam as Mulheres, Это неопределенное чувство, 막연한 그 감정, 夫妇之道, Nejisté city
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Theatrical
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USA
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USA
20 Apr 1941
- Theatrical
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There is a queasy malaise over Ernst Lubistch’s “That Uncertain Feeling;” a film cursed with an ambivalent title that portends its own discontent.
By the early 1940s, Lubitsch’s earlier variety of screwball comedy was playing more like a wooden peg. The cultivator of Lubitschland in silent and early sound film still had a masterpiece (“To Be Or Not to Be”) and two great films ahead of him. But, each of those works possess a sharper edge of reality about them than held by the fabled follies characteristic of his first two decades of films.
“That Uncertain Feeling,” a warring couples drama starring Merle Oberon and Melvyn Douglas, falls flat in the gap between mannered and menace eras of Lubistch. Before…
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1941 Marathon - Film #24”You’re going to get your divorce if it’s the last thing I do.”
In this lesser Lubitsch, he explores a happy couple’s tumultuous ride through the hiccups of marital turmoil. And much like their relationship, this film’s a bit of a bumpy ride.
However, I still laughed out loud way too many times, and I’m ashamed to admit that I saw way too much of myself in both Melvyn Douglas and Burgess Meredith’s characters.
”Don’t you try to solve me, Mrs. Happy Baker.”
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Lubitsch is the expensive champagne of the Classic Hollywood trailblazers, so fizzy you could burp with all the intoxication of seeing your boss slip at the Christmas work do after one keen sip too many.
And a hole in the side of the bottle that squirts the eye of anyone who tries to pour a glass of what he has to offer, before leaking out entirely. Just don’t shake him too hard, and you’ll get on alright.
Melvyn Douglas, I would have a cold pint of bitters with you any day.
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this is very all over the place, and in some ways that’s bad, but in others it’s kind of...good?
I went into this for merle oberon and melvyn douglas, but actually came out of it liking burgess meredith’s character the most, which is kind of bizarre because you can tell he’s written to be unlikable, but his nihilistic apathy that probably wouldn’t have been appealing when this was released is actually spot on millennial humor? I loved it.
the film is by no means perfect, but there are so many scenes where you can feel the Lubitsch Touch™ working its magic that you kind of have no other choice but to forget about the hiccups and give in to the madness.
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"Snoojy?! Calling that Snoojy??!"
Keeks! It's a Lubitsch love triangle. This time featuring businessman husband Larry Baker (Melvyn Douglas), wife Jill (Merle Oberon) whose doubts about her marriage manifest in the form of hiccups, and misanthropic bizarrely behaving asshole Alexander Sebastian (Burgess Meredith).
This is a weird one. It's odd to see a love triangle where all three people are fairly unlikeable. Jill seems to want Alexander just because she has, despite the fact that she's been married 6 years, a case of the "7 year itch". She's a little bored and annoyed by Larry's mundane failings...like his "not snoring but breathing heavily". She's frustrated by his expectation that she perform for dinner guests to help advance his business. Most…
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First and most importantly: please don’t turn this off during the first Burgess Meredith scene. I know it’s teeth-grindingly annoying, but I promise things get better almost immediately afterward — just give it another minute or two.
Now that that’s out of the way: there’s a strange sedateness to Lubtisch’s most farcical films, a quality that’s fully embodied by That Uncertain Feeling. He loves to not follow his couples with the camera, making us imagine the canoodling that’s no doubt happening offscreen rather than showing it, and he often builds to farce through the most banal of conversations. Here, then, we have mysterious and detailed discussion of what 12:15 really means, an offensive vase, and consideration of appropriate behavior from a…
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at one point merle oberon refers to burgess meredith as "snoogie" and melvyn douglas's reaction is shouting "SNOOGIE??!!!???!!?!?" with severe exasperation. i love when lubitsch just fully commits to wackiness!!!
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Sure, this may not be Lubitsch’s best, but it’s still very charming and funny. The Lubitsch touch is certainly present in here, and the part where they’re trying to stage an argument but their “lines” are so stilted and Merle Oberon keeps forgetting hers had me dying. Melvyn Douglas is such an adept comedic leading man and I cannot wait to watch more of his filmography!
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“Sounds awful, doesn’t it?”
-“Everything legal does.”Filling in more of my Lubitsch punch card. All hail the Ladies Lounge. Lubitsch touches on psychoanalysis, dreams and Dali-esque surrealism, like seemingly every other filmmaker in the 40s. A Merle Oberon hiccup comedy based on a late 19th century Sardou play maybe wasn’t the brilliant idea United Artists thought it was.
Oberon is beautiful in nighties and gowns by Irene but doesn’t necessarily have the comedic timing needed to sell this kind of droll comedy. Burgess Meredith (“Snoogie”) plays a delightfully sick little weirdo pianist, but I’m sorry, I just don’t see him as the “other man” in this story; he is asexual to me. Melvyn Douglas is the only one who…
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I went back and forth on this movie so many times when watching it. Then, I finally just had to buy into the chaos. Everyone is the butt of the joke, no one is safe from acting like a fool. It's anarchy, it's nihilistic, which is a little ironic seeing that one of the characters reminded me a lot of those guys who decide having no political views and instead being entirely apathetic is the same as having an interesting personality. Plus you've got a flighty wife who would honestly be fine if she could just get some part-time work or a vocation (could this be a subtle commentary on traditional gender roles and how they affect and even worsen…
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One thing is certain about That Uncertain Feeling: it doesn't feel anything like an Ernst Lubitsch production. You could have told me that some lesser studio hack directed it, and I'd have believed it. Melvyn Douglas was in some real stinkers after his great (and well-deserved) success in Ninotchka but before Hud gave him a major resurgence as a two-time Oscar-winning character actor - Our Wife, Two-Faced Woman and We Were Dancing immediately come to mind - and this Lubitsch rom-com is no exception. As in so many scripts from this era, a business-minded husband neglects his frustrated wife, she looks to another fellow for excitement and comfort, and the jealous husband does everything possible to make her feel bad enough to return. Ugh. Personally, if I were Merle Oberon, and I had to choose between boring Melvyn and eccentric, temperamental pianist Burgess Meredith, I'd choose Burgess every time because I love that cute little man.
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