Honeymoon in Bali

Honeymoon In Bali
Honeymoon In Bali
Directed by	Edward H. Griffith
Written by	Virginia Van Upp (screenplay) ; Katharine Brush; Grace Sartwell Mason
Produced by	Jeff Lazarus
Starring	Fred MacMurray; Madeleine Carroll; Akim Tamiroff
Cinematography	Ted Tetzlaff; Charles Schoenbaum;
Edited by	Eda Warren
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	September 29, 1939
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Honeymoon in Bali is a 1939 American romantic comedy film. It is also known by the alternative titles Husbands or Lovers and My Love for Yours. Virginia Van Upp's screenplay was based on the short stories "Our Miss Keane" by Grace Sartwell Mason in The Saturday Evening Post of May 24, 1923, and "Free Woman" by Katharine Brush in Redbook magazine of November–December 1936. In 1936 Paramount announced a film of Our Miss Keane to star Merle Oberon to be produced.^[1]

Plot[edit]

On a rainy April afternoon in New York City, the head of a major department store, Gail Allen, meets her second cousin and best friend Lorna for afternoon tea. Her cousin, an author of love stories set in the South Seas, invites a resident fortune teller to predict Gail's future. At first the reading sounds like a hundred others, until she foresees her having a child and meeting a man whose arm was cut by a native's rice knife.

The fortune teller predicts, as Neptune is in her sign at the moment, she could find herself walking down a street and taking an unexpected turn where things would change. Thinking that her career will come first, Gail does not like her predicted future but finds herself taking an unexpected turn that takes her into a shop that sells sailboats. There she meets Bill Burnett, who lives in Bali, and is holidaying in New York. Beginning with Bill's injury from a native's rice knife, all of the predictions eventually come to pass.

Burnett has adopted a little girl, Rosie (Carolyn Lee) who Gail takes an immediate liking to, if not her father.

She also receives much unsolicited advice from a philosophical window washer (Akim Tamiroff), who always ends his shift by climbing into Carroll's office uninvited.

Cast[edit]

Fred MacMurray as Bill "Willie" Burnett
Madeleine Carroll as Gail Allen
Allan Jones as Eric Sinclair
Akim Tamiroff as Tony, the window washer
Helen Broderick as Lorna "Smitty" Smith
Osa Massen as Noel Van Ness
Carolyn Lee as Rosie
Astrid Allwyn as Fortune Teller
Georgia Caine as Miss Stone, Gail's secretary
John Qualen as Meek Man
Fritzi Brunette as Secretary
William B. Davidson as Store Detective
Benny Bartlett as Jack, the singing telegram boy
Charles Lane as Photographer (uncredited)
Monty Woolley as Parker, Lorna's publisher (uncredited)

Reception[edit]

A review from The Washington Post, on October 5, 1939, says "'Honeymoon in Bali' Is Delightfully Easy To Take!"^{[citation needed]} The Los Angeles Times review from October 13, 1939, says "'Honeymoon in Bali' Light, Romantic Comedy."^{[citation needed]}

Alternate names[edit]

Are Husbands Necessary? (working title; later used by Paramount for an unrelated 1942 comedy with Ray Milland and Betty Field)
Husbands or Lovers (UK)
My Love for Yours (video title)

Quotes[edit]

"There's not a wall between freedom and loneliness, you can fall into it without warning" - Lorna^{[non-primary source needed]}

References[edit]

^ The Argus November 28, 1936

External links[edit]

Honeymoon in Bali at IMDb
Honeymoon in Bali at the TCM Movie Database
My Love for Yours is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
Los Angeles Times Review^{[dead link]}
Washington Post Review^{[dead link]}

[1] The Argus November 28, 1936

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