Bedtime for Bonzo (1951) + I’ll Take Sweden (1965) – DVDs

BEDTIME FOR BONZO
**½/**** Image B Sound B+
starring Ronald Reagan, Diana Lynn, Walter Slezak, Jesse White
screenplay by Val Burton and Lou Breslow
directed by Frederick de Cordova

I'LL TAKE SWEDEN
*/**** Image A- Sound A
starring Bob Hope, Tuesday Weld, Frankie Avalon, Dina Merrill
screenplay by Nat Perrin, Bob Fisher and Arthur Marx
directed by Frederick de Cordova

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover FILM FREAK CENTRAL now heads into uncharted waters with the first auteurist assessment of one Frederick de Cordova. Yes, the man who inadvertently wedged his foot in pop history by bringing Ronald Reagan and a monkey together in Bedtime for Bonzo indeed has themes that remain consistent–at least in the fifteen years that intervened between that film and his Bob Hope vehicle, I'll Take Sweden. Both find a rigid father figure finally lightening up after aggravating bad situations with some abstract and inflexible rules. But while Bedtime for Bonzo bristles with surprise implications and rear-view Reagan desecrations, I'll Take Sweden lies dead on the screen thanks to terrible lines and unpleasant "racy" humour. Which means that whatever de Cordova's thematic uniformity, I suspect the Cinémathèque française monograph is not forthcoming.

The combination of Ronald Reagan and a chimp is indeed not the stuff of critical wet dreams, so I was surprised to discover how not-bad Bedtime for Bonzo really is. In fact, it's a little better than not-bad, a pleasing if not uproarious domestic fantasy in which psychology professor Peter Boyd (Reagan) learns to be a real person from the aforementioned primate. Pushed into a corner by his father's long criminal record, Peter has to raise Bonzo the chimp as a human baby in order to prove to his dean (and prospective father-in-law, played by Herbert Heyes) that biology is not destiny. While much of it is standard '50s egghead-baiting (Peter is the classic intellectual out of touch with his feelings), there's also some softening of the stiff Eisenhower ideal, with our hero having to doff his authoritative presence and nurture the "baby" as opposed to treating it as a test subject.

Part of the attraction of the film lies in watching Reagan say and do things that don't square with his political persona, such as sticking up for a criminal on the grounds of his impoverished upbringing. Bedtime for Bonzo also stands on its own terms, however, committing to its warm-fuzzy mandate instead of brushing it off as a mere job. The interplay between Reagan and chirpy hired "mother" Diana Lynn–who also chips away at the inaccessible bad father our hero has become–has real innocent spark, and Walter Slezak offers friendly support as the warm colleague there to chide Peter for his remoteness. The film has a project, and if it doesn't make it particularly cogent, it gives it a bit of resonance it might have otherwise lacked. There's a belief in the movie's homilies that's rather touching in these glib post-modern times. As it turns out, it's especially touching in the face of the screeching horror that is I'll Take Sweden.

Thematically, I'll Take Sweden is a perfect match with Bedtime for Bonzo: another authoritative father figure, Bob (Hope), thinks he knows the absolute best for a child figure, hot-blooded daughter JoJo (Tuesday Weld), and the results are humbling. To break up the apparently undesirable marriage of JoJo and loafing layabout Kenny (Frankie Avalon), Bob moves the family to Sweden in the hopes of leaving Kenny in the dust–only to discover both a) Sweden's disconcertingly liberal sexual mores, and b) that Eric (Jeremy Slate), the apparently upstanding Swede who subsequently pursues her, is a cad with one thing on his mind. Yet although the message is parental tolerance, the medium is twilight-of-Old-Hollywood disconnect, chucking warmth for a hard-sheen finish that's hard to stomach.

As the script gives Hope endless opportunities for contemptuous repartee (rendered with the sparkling wit of a Bazooka Joe wrapper), one can hardly take the tattered shreds of theme seriously: the Ski-Nosed Wonder is ruthless whether he's in the wrong or not, mooting the narrative and lending the proceedings a meanness they shouldn't have. It's also got an out-of-touch fogy's vision of the sexual revolution, full of grim leering that cheapens the naughtiness instead of giving it sex appeal. And a harsh, retina-searing "Batman" palette that objectifies and artificializes everything has overtaken the sweet fuzziness of Bedtime for Bonzo. De Cordova was clearly a journeyman hack, adapting his motifs to very limited commercial confines, but the potential for those motifs as realized in Bedtime for Bonzo makes his I'll Take Sweden degeneration seem like a sad corruption. Though I suppose I'm the only one likely to do any mourning.

THE DVDs
Universal's DVD release of Bedtime for Bonzo is merely adequate. The full-frame image is a tad indistinct due to slightly soft fine detail; over-brightness is also an issue, though not enough to be genuinely destructive of the viewing experience. The Dolby 2.0 mono sound is similarly indistinct but far from indecipherable. Despite its lack of anamorphic enhancement, MGM's I'll Take Sweden disc has a definite edge on Bedtime for Bonzo in the video department: the 1.66:1 image is frighteningly sharp and superbly saturated. Its Dolby 2.0 mono soundtrack is also without serious fault. Trailers round out both platters.

• Bedtime for Bonzo
  84 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Mono); English SDH, French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-5; Region One; Universal
• I'll Take Sweden
  97 minutes; NR; 1.66:1; English DD 2.0 (Mono); English, French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-5; Region One; MGM