Theodore went wild. A wonderful eccentric comedy from the director Richard Boleslavsky (Odessite and Moscow Art Artist, which, no matter what, is pleasant), which has a curious biography; and famous among other things for the fact that in 1915, together with Fyodor Chaliapin, he starred in the film “Tsar John Vasilyevich the Terrible”. The film "Theodora goes wild" is a classic of the genre, one of the best of its kind, not inferior to "Raising a baby", "It happened one night" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" by Hitchcock. There are witty dialogues, and finely written characters, and an entertaining and quite plausible conflict of social prejudices and inner freedom and emancipation. The cast is also very good, especially delightful ladies in the age, in the second roles playing clerical prim provincial purses. It is worth noting Irene Dunn, charming, hilarious, memorable and pleasantly pleased once again with her comedic gift, which she is endowed with more than dramatic.
The conflict is built on the clash of mores of provincial society in a town reminiscent of Cranford. Elizabeth Gaskell, and the modern metropolitan culture, freed from the prejudices of the Age of Innocence and emancipated woman. Another conflict is the internal conflict of Theodora (Irene Dunn), who, on the one hand, is internally unfree and very serenely lives in harmony with the prejudices and prohibitions of her aunts, who seem to compete in who will come up with these prohibitions more; and on the other hand, perfectly understands that a good half of these rules are nothing more than a manifestation of hypocrisy, and the rules these aunts themselves secretly violate constantly. With the help of the metropolitan artist Michael Grant (Melvin Douglas), Theodora manages to start living a full life, without looking at this minefield of prohibitions, here and there blocking the path, and making a full life as such almost impossible. However, as soon as she spread her wings and believe her happiness, the artist left the town and left in an unknown direction: perhaps, becoming too "emansipe", Theodora scared off her beloved, who turned out to be constrained by conventions and not ready for radical changes in his own life?
One can only lament that now Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to shoot such charming, cheerful, direct pictures, and apparently forever lost the “high calm” of the comedy, in which there was nothing obscene and aggressive, and where the creators did not have to for reasons of political correctness and others insert into the film African-Americans (as well as Latin Americans and Chinese), sex minorities, passionate kisses suction and / or more frank scenes artistically staged, and nevertheless managed to attract the viewer, give him a good mood and gratitude.