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Gloria Swanson

 
 
 
   
 
 

FATHER TAKES A WIFE

 

RKO, 1941.  Directed by Jack Hively.  Camera:  Robert de Grasse.  With Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Swanson, John Howard, Desi Arnaz, Helen Broderick, Florence Rice, Neil Hamilton, Grady Sutton, George Meader, Mary Treen, Ruth Dietrich, Grant Withers.

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Frederick "Junior" Osborne, son of shipping magnate Frederick "Senior" Osborne, is baffled by his father's capricious behavior.  Formerly a staid businessman, Senior waltzes into his office one day and announces that he is turning the business over to Junior and plans to marry actress Leslie Collier.

When Junior and his wife Enid meet Leslie that night at dinner, the table conversation drips with sarcasm about Senior and Leslie's age difference.  After dinner, the Osbornes attend Leslie's farewell stage performance, and Senior erupts with jealousy over the amorous attentions of Leslie's leading man.

After their wedding ceremony, the couple continues to bicker when Leslie refuses to assume her husband's name.  During their honeymoon cruise to Mexico, Leslie and Senior finally enjoy domestic tranquility until they discover a stowaway, singer Carlos Bardez.  Feeling sorry for the impoverished Carlos, Senior offers the singer refuge.  Once the honeymoon couple and Carlos are ensconced in the Osborne mansion, however, Leslie appoints herself Carlos' impresario, filling Senior with jealousy.

On the night of Carlos' debut, Leslie comes home very late, and Senior storms out of the house and moves in with Junior and Enid.  To reconcile his father and Leslie, Junior invites Carlos to move in with him and Enid.  Junior's scheme fails, however, when Leslie moves out of the house and refuses to speak to Senior.

Meanwhile, at Junior's house, history repeats itself when Enid assumes the role of Carlos' impresario and Junior jealously storms out on the night of Carlos' concert.  Father and son then scheme to rid themselves of Carlos by underwriting a sixty-five city concert tour.

Soon after, at their doctor's office, Enid and Leslie meet and both discover that they are pregnant.  Meanwhile, at a ship launching, Senior is shown a gossip column announcing his impending fatherhood, and he and Junior rush to Leslie's hotel room, where Junior learns that he is to be a father, too.

American Film Institute Catalog