Strictly Dishonorable (1951) User Reviews (7)

Delightful Preston Sturges romantic screwball comedy, mixing music with vivacious Janet Leigh!

[larry41onEbay · 6/10 · 9 September 2000]

REVIEW: With so many new films, made-for-TV and straight-to-video films coming out on DVD, it is a crime that minor masterpieces like this are still not available -- even on video tape! I have wanted to see this film for years as I am both a serious film buff and a Preston Sturges fan. Since there are millions of screwball film fans who love good romantic comedies, like BRINGING UP BABY, IT HAPPEN ONE NIGHT, NOTHING SACRED, MY MAN GODFREY, THE MIRACLE OF MORGANS CREEK, etc. I think we should all write letters to MGM/Warner Brothers and request it be released ASAP! Having finally found it myself I recommend it highly! Janet Leigh is wonderful, beautiful, captivating, sweet and very convincing with a charming southern accent. Dashing Ezio Pinza is an adequate actor until Janet comes along and he lights up from within. They have wonderful chemistry together. And even though I am not an opera buff his bold basso voice is filled with warm passion and made my girlfriend cuddle all the closer… The film shines with effervescent Sturges dialogue and sparkles with wit and snappy twists on sophisticated and street wise observations. As with the classic films that were both written and directed by Preston Sturges, the character actors and supporting roles are given the best gags and the stars are there for us to admire, lust after and identify with. Hundreds of great films like this gem are slowly fading away from neglect. Let's preserve all the good old films we can so our grandchildren can enjoy the same movies that entertained our grandparents! Out of four stars I would give this wonderful little soufflé THREE STARS!

PLOT (with spoilers): In the mid-1920's New York, Bill Dempsey (Millard Mitchell) is an agent trying to protect his good friend and client, a bass opera singer named Count but who goes by Gus (Ezio Pinza) avoid any messy public scandals. But when the womanizing opera star refuses to sing with the untalented wife of a newspaper publisher, Dempsey knows this will lead to trouble. The angry husband uses his publication's photographers to embarrass the famous singer by splicing his picture into several scandalous tabloid poses. Southern belle music student Isabelle Dempsey (a very sweet and fetching Janet Leigh) is engaged to a New Jersey insurance salesman, but works hard to join the cast of the opera so she can be near her hero Count/Gus. She talks her way into to the cast as a super and appears next to her idol only to be handed a prop sword during an important number. Star struck and dumbfounded she allows the sword's handle to hover over an open flame before absent mindedly handing it back… OUCH!!! This "meet cute" leads to more complications when Isabelle tries to apologize but is rushed away. She persuades her fiancee to take her to the speakeasy Gus frequents to try and apologize. After meeting up and asking forgiveness, Isabel and Gus are left alone for a while when the fiancee must step outside. When he returns he finds them dancing, he blows his top and abandons her there. Bill suspects her motives and believes she is a plant to further embarrass Gus and warns him of a set-up. Gus though, is smitten and turns up his wolfish charms offering her a place for the night. After a series of plot twists, they feel they must marry immediately to avoid a bigger scandal. Meanwhile a manipulative lawyer persuades Countess Lili Szadvany (Maria Palmer), Gus's most recent girlfriend to sue for breach of promise. This leads to more complications and behind the scenes manipulations. Also an Italian maid and Italian mother are thrown in to stir up the soup before they decide, "to heck with the scandals" and they take a train to Niagara Falls… Florida?

Strictly fun, not dishonourable at all

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 4 February 2017]

Seeing it on a very old DVD practically on its last legs and as a fan of Ezio Pinza's voice, 'Strictly Dishonorable' was surprisingly enjoyable. Love classical music/opera/musicals and Pinza, but opera stars don't always work as well on film as they do on stage and am also taking into account the huge loss that 'Strictly Dishonorable' had on release.

Not a great film as such. The story is thin and sometimes unbelievable in its silliness. The Italian supporting actors tend to overact and mug, and not just mildly, we're talking embarrassingly broadly. The production values are less than lavish too, the film having a somewhat made in haste look.

However the music is lovely, both the songs written for the film and the operatic excerpts, Pinza singing "Le Veau D'Or" with terrifying virility. The script is witty fun and has a lot of charm and heart, not an amazing script but there's far worse around. The story isn't great here, but kept afloat by the magical chemistry of Pinza and Janet Leigh and by the energy and that it clearly knows what it's trying to be and do and doesn't try to be anything more.

Like as was said in my review for 'Mr Imperium' (a vastly inferior film), Pinza had a beautiful, noble bass voice (one of the most naturally beautiful of any operatic bass along with Nicolai Ghiaurov), and he sings sublimely, despite being retired from opera and shifting to Broadway his voice is one that you can listen to for hours and never tire of. He acquits himself much better in the acting stakes too, more natural, less over-eager, plus his chemistry with Leigh here is much better than the non-existent one with miscast Lana Turner in 'Mr Imperium. Leigh is a far more engaging leading lady, being incandescent and vivacious.

Gale Robbins is effective, while Millard Mitchell is suitably droll.

All in all, fun and in no way dishonourable if not exactly a film one would call great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

bad sitcom

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 19 August 2023]

Italian opera star Count Augustino "Gus" Caraffa (Ezio Pinza) has a bad playboy reputation due to media manipulation. He insists on fighting back by smashing every camera. Sweet music student and Caraffa fan Isabelle Perry (Janet Leigh) has a small part in his performance. She causes chaos and gets fired. She insists on apologizing to him which leads to a false assumption which leads to a bad revenge scheme which leads to a potential scandal which leads to a fake marriage cover-up.

It would help if the viewer is an Ezio Pinza fan or at a minimum, an opera fan. I'm neither. I don't know this guy. I don't really get the concept of this sitcom idiocy. It's completely stupid. That whole situation in his apartment is creepy as heck although it's a bit of fun back in the day. The premise is basically using a hammer to swat a fly. Janet Leigh is as sweet as honey. This is a bad sitcom idea.

An uneven movie with a few decent scenes and a lot of bad dialogue

[richard-1787 · 3/10 · 21 April 2015]

This is not a great movie, or even a good one, frankly. I haven't read the 1929 Preston Sturges play on which it was based, or seen the 1931 movie that was first based on it. The play was a big hit on Broadway, so I find it hard to believe it could have been as bad as this movie. Why MGM agreed to put so poor a script into production - and it is a really poor script - I cannot begin to guess. According to another reviewer on here, this was a big money-loser for MGM. I'm not surprised. You won't be either if you decide to sit through it.

Pinza had a great career as one of the Metropolitan Opera's leading basses from 1926-1948. He then retired from opera, at age 56, and began a second career on Broadway and in a few movies. He started on Broadway opposite Mary Martin in one of the American musical theater's greatest hits, South Pacific, which opened a long run in 1949. His great success as Emile de Becque in that musical led to other musicals, most notably Fanny, and a few movies, such as this one in 1951, when Pinza was 59.

Pinza has some decent scenes opposite a much younger Janet Leigh, 24 and near the beginning of her movie career. This may seem strange, but remember that the early 1950s was an era of much older men, like Cary Grant (Charade, 1963), Gary Cooper (Love in the Afternoon, 1957), and Fred Astaire (Daddy Long-Legs, 1955), all then in their 50s, appearing opposite much younger women like Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron, who were then in their 20s. One previous reviewer speaks of "the magical chemistry of Pinza and Janet Leigh," another wrote that "they have wonderful chemistry together." I don't see that, but they do seem to be comfortable with each other, if not really drawn together sexually. (Pinza has to spend much of the movie pretending to try to control his desire for Leigh. It's not very convincing.)

Other than that: Leigh is supposed to be from Mississippi. This was a mistake, since her exaggerated southern accent keeps appearing and disappearing.

Pinza sings a few forgettable pop songs and has two opera scenes. They are what should count here, since people would have gone to see and hear him.

His second operatic number, "Le veau d'or" from Faust, is fun to watch, though the costumes are bad and the staging not good. It's fascinating to watch Pinza, at 59, jump on and off tables like a young man and really create a character. Still, there are parts that he does not sing particularly well. The subsequent scene of him hunting for Leigh in Grand Central Station while still in his Mefistopheles costume could have been a lot funnier if it had been handled by a better director.

The first opera scene is evidently from some made-up opera, with music by Hollywood composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. It appears to be about a Roman general who is returning to his wife Calpurnia. The music is generic, but the Italian libretto sounds real, and Pinza does a great job singing the forgettable music. His Italian diction, as always, was impeccable.

The best musical number is actually a scene in a movie theater where, after the end of the silent movie, the organist asks the audience to sing along, following the bouncing ball. When Pinza starts to sing over the collection of strictly amateur voices one would encounter in such a situation, the real glory of his voice astounds the audience, as it will you.

So, in sum, not a great movie. I found it harder to sit through on a second viewing, to the extent that I can't recommend it. Pinza doesn't sing much, and what he does sing is not particularly memorable. All the rest is downhill from there.

I guess I'm halfway between other critics!

[JohnHowardReid · 4/10 · 25 September 2016]

At 94 minutes, this must be the longest "B" film ever released. Why Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put it into circulation at this inordinate length is a bit of a mystery. Even cut back to 54 minutes, the film at best would be only mildly acceptable. But, at 94 minutes, it gets my vote as the dullest, the most tedious and the most lacking in production values that I have ever come across. Indeed, it's hard to believe that the gifted team of Panama and Frank were responsible, as it totally lacks their usual wit and sparkle. In fact, it's one of the most talkative movies ever made. Ezio Pinza is poorly photographed and looks like a fish. On the other hand, Janet Leigh is overly bathed with light and Millard Mitchell is limited to extended mugging in numerous unnecessary reaction shots. Gale Robbins is effective in an extremely small part as a would-be operatic star. She's given not even one single close-up! Ezio Pinza sings four numbers, but to my mind his voice is too heavy for songs like "I'll See You in My Dreams", which needs a light, pleasant voice, not heavy thunder! TV star, Maria Palmer, is attractively groomed as the jilted countess. Despite the film's length, production values are well below M-G-M's usual high standard.

Strictly awful

[PICMTN97 · 1/10 · 22 April 2008]

Like so many movies involving Ezio Pinza, this one is terrible. All of his movies are contrived to the enth degree and bear absolutely no relation whatsoever to real life. This guy could sing but he could not act. I've seen better actors in high school plays.

And like so many of Pinza's efforts, this one is pure cornball. He and Janet Leigh break their romance and part. Then they just happen to go into the same movie theater at about the same time. They just happen to see one another in a crowded dark theater. He just happens to break out into song in the theater and sweeps the lady off her feet. Come on, this is hokum at its worst.

This is my second well-thought out analysis of a Pinza movie, the other being the horrendous Mr.Imperium, which I would encourage you to read before you decide to watch that movie. Fare like this could easily turn one into a movie hater. That would be a shame since there are many good movies out there. This certainly isn't one of them.

Cheerful Musical, and Oh Whatta Voice!

[tonstant viewer · 8/10 · 30 June 2008]

First of all, Ezio Pinza had a voice. If you've never heard an opera, you'll still respond to this man's singing.

Pinza had a lyric bass unlike anyone alive today, and it's the kind of sound that makes women sit up and take notice - it's an animal communication that has nothing to do with high culture.

Secondly, he's enjoying himself here. Like another refugee from the Metropolitan, tenor Lauritz Melchior, Pinza seems to enjoy acting in MGM escapist froth. His reactions while listening to a bad soprano are worth the price of admission right there.

The script is formulaic, the plot twists and turns visible a mile ahead of time, the overacting of the Italian characters very much of its era.

But they're all having a good time, and you'll have a good time too. "Mr. Imperium" is equally amiable, and features more great singing.

Disregard any negative reviews you may find here: you don't watch MGM musicals expecting "Anna Christie." This film knows exactly what it's doing, and it does just fine.