Man Alive (1945)

Speed McBride (Pat O'Brien) is not happy with his wife, Connie. An old boyfriend (Rudy Vallee) is in town and she is gaga about the guy. What's worse, when Speed asks Connie, she says she isn't sure whether she's STILL in love with the old boyfriend or not! As a result, Speed goes off on a bender and through some impossible to believe circumstances, he's assumed to have been killed driving while drunk. However, he's completely alive. Instead of just revealing to everyone he's really alive, he lets a guy he just met (Adolph Menjou) convince him to pretend he's dead. What's more, although he doesn't know the guy at all, he then follows his wacky plan to return home as a ghost to teach his wife a lesson. If you think that this sounds like a bad sitcom plot...well, you are pretty much catching on to the plot. And, if you think it can't get much stupider...well, you're wrong!

This is a dumb movie. Enjoyable in a brainless sort of way but clearly a film that must have embarrassed the cast and which they sooner would have forgotten. Watchable but awful.

By the way, I noticed one reviewer seemed shocked that Pat O'Brien actually starred in this film--implying he was only a supporting actor. Well, he almost exclusively starred in films and generally was NOT a supporting actor...in case you were wondering.