In 1942 the United States had only just entered World War Two, with the people trying their best to come to terms with a conflict which three years previously had seemed like a remote European war, with little or no importance to them. This was the basis of the America First Movement, which flourished in the late Thirties.
ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON was designed to influence public opinion by showing how much the Nazi colonization of Europe mattered to everyone in the world. The basic plot is straightforward: former showgirl Kathie O'Hara (aka Katherine Butt-Smith) (Ginger Rogers) is about to marry the Baron Franz von Luber (Walter Slezak) without realizing that he is a Nazi agent masquerading as an Austrian patriot. Campaigning journalist Pat O'Toole (Cary Grant), on an assignment to investigate O'Hara's past and present for American readers, acts as the voice of reason as he tries to set her right. The task proves impossible at first, but in a series of picaresque adventures in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and France, she comes to understand what a mistake she has made.
Leo McCarey's film contains certain flabby moments - especially in a sequence ostensibly taking place in Paris, when O'Toole and O'Hara confess their love for one another. There are also some overt scenes of propaganda that interrupt the plot, especially when O'Hara encounters American spy Gaston le Blanc (Albert Dekker). On the credit side, however, there are some truly delightful comic sequences, no more so when Grant poses as O'Hara's dressmaker and tries to take her measurements. He makes every effort to avoid embarrassment, and by doing so ties himself into knots both physically and verbally. Grant and Rogers's playing of this sequence is masterly, with Rogers's deadpan countenance contrasting with Grant's facial contortions.
Walter Slezak makes a convincing villain, his smooth, gentle exterior concealing a ruthless personality. He encounters O'Toole at a Paris café and backs the journalist into a corner: if O'Toole does not broadcast on the Nazi Party's behalf, then O'Hara's future cannot be guaranteed as she will be handed over to the Gestapo. Slezak's voice hardly rises above a whisper, yet the threat remains - despite his outwardly noble nature, O'Toole will have to submit to the Baron's wishes.
ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON is certainly a period-piece, but it is still of interest, if only as an example of how versatile an actor Grant actually was, straddling the boundaries between comedy and straight drama with consummate ease.
ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON was designed to influence public opinion by showing how much the Nazi colonization of Europe mattered to everyone in the world. The basic plot is straightforward: former showgirl Kathie O'Hara (aka Katherine Butt-Smith) (Ginger Rogers) is about to marry the Baron Franz von Luber (Walter Slezak) without realizing that he is a Nazi agent masquerading as an Austrian patriot. Campaigning journalist Pat O'Toole (Cary Grant), on an assignment to investigate O'Hara's past and present for American readers, acts as the voice of reason as he tries to set her right. The task proves impossible at first, but in a series of picaresque adventures in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and France, she comes to understand what a mistake she has made.
Leo McCarey's film contains certain flabby moments - especially in a sequence ostensibly taking place in Paris, when O'Toole and O'Hara confess their love for one another. There are also some overt scenes of propaganda that interrupt the plot, especially when O'Hara encounters American spy Gaston le Blanc (Albert Dekker). On the credit side, however, there are some truly delightful comic sequences, no more so when Grant poses as O'Hara's dressmaker and tries to take her measurements. He makes every effort to avoid embarrassment, and by doing so ties himself into knots both physically and verbally. Grant and Rogers's playing of this sequence is masterly, with Rogers's deadpan countenance contrasting with Grant's facial contortions.
Walter Slezak makes a convincing villain, his smooth, gentle exterior concealing a ruthless personality. He encounters O'Toole at a Paris café and backs the journalist into a corner: if O'Toole does not broadcast on the Nazi Party's behalf, then O'Hara's future cannot be guaranteed as she will be handed over to the Gestapo. Slezak's voice hardly rises above a whisper, yet the threat remains - despite his outwardly noble nature, O'Toole will have to submit to the Baron's wishes.
ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON is certainly a period-piece, but it is still of interest, if only as an example of how versatile an actor Grant actually was, straddling the boundaries between comedy and straight drama with consummate ease.