Ten more years pass: Henry dances a last waltz with Martha, whose loving smile hides the fact that she knows she hasn't much longer to live. But Henry's gay-90s romantic approach is out of touch with the Roaring 20s, and he ends up paying the entertainer a tidy sum to rescue his son-a fact that amuses Henry's understanding wife Martha, who now knows that her husband is hers and hers alone. Twenty years later, Henry, now a faithful and proper husband and father, attempts to charm a beautiful musical-comedy entertainer (Helen Walker) so that she'll forsake his young and impressionable son. Henry once more declares his love to Martha, and she can't help but be touched by his boyish sincerity. Henry's grandpa (Charles Coburn) orders the errant husband not to let so wonderful a girl as Martha get away from him. At 31, Henry nearly loses Martha when, weary of his harmless extracurricular flirtations, she goes home to her boorish parents (Eugene Pallette and Marjorie Main). At 21, Henry elopes with lovely Martha Strabel (Gene Tierney) stealing her away from her stuffy fiance Albert Van Cleve (Allyn Joslyn), Henry's cousin. Upon reaching 15, Henry (played as a teenager by Dickie Moore) naively permits himself to get drunk with and be seduced by his family's French maid (Signe Hasso). Each milestone of Henry's life, it seems, has occurred on one of his birthdays. His Excellency doubts that Van Cleave has sinned enough to qualify for entrance into Hades, but Henry insists that he's led the most wicked of lives, and proceeds to tell his story.
The immaculately dressed septuagenarian arrives at the outer offices of Hades, where he is greeted by His Excellency (Laird Cregar), the most courteous and gentlemanly Satan in screen history. Michael Parkinson, Radio 2 Donald Coutts has captured some Bill Forsyth magic in American Cousins.On the day of his death in 1943, the spirit of Henry Van Cleave (Don Ameche) obligingly heads for the place where so many people had previously told him to go. Independent on Sunday A charming, charming film. It’s a very funny, loveable charmer with a heart as soft and sweet as a Tunnock’s Tea Cake. Sunday Herald I was immersed in the warmth of Sergio Casci’s script and Donald Coutts’s direction. Hotdog A charming and beautifully observed comedy. See this film and you’ll be smiling at strangers in the street for the rest of the day. The best British rom-com / culture-clash comedy in years, - but don’t take my word for it. Well-paced, atmospheric, immensely likeable.įinancial Times Local Hero meets The Sopranos. Gangsters, Scotland, fish suppers and automatic weapons, sweetly undeclared love… It sounds like Bill Forsyth territory but with more gumption and less whimsy.
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