You won't be disappointed!

Really Surprised!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

"The Heavenly Body" is a fine play on words as the title for this film. William Powell is astronomer William Whitley who has discovered a comet. While he is so occupied with his work, another heavenly body sits at home all alone. Hedy Lamarr plays his wife, Vicky. She's so bored because of lack of attention, that she gets rooked into and then hooked on astrology. The story takes place around one of the observatories in Arizona. The time is the early 1940s, while World War II is taking place. The two leads and the rest of the cast are fine in this film, and the idea for the plot is quite good. Some reviewers found it too silly that an astronomer's spouse would be into astrology. Of course it's silly, but silliness often makes for very good comedy. The problem with this film is that the script just isn't very funny. In William Powell comedies, one is used to some very clever and witty dialog, usually along with some funny antics. There's little of either in this movie. Still, Powell's efforts with this lackluster role in an almost ho-hum story, earns this seven stars with a little stretch. Helping that stretch are a couple of things one seldom sees in movies with stories in the U.S. during World War II. The first is Civil Defense wardens. James Craig plays one here as Lloyd Hunter. So, here was an American community during WW II that had people serving as air raid wardens. The second unique thing for movies of that period also is related to the war. Rationing was enforced across the U.S. during the war. Different things were controlled at different periods during the war. Apparently, during the time of this film, food rationing was widespread. William Whitley discovers that the astrology guru, Margaret Sibyll has been hiding something. She finally comes clean and reveals that she has been stockpiling canned food supplies obtained with extra ration cards. It was strange though, that William Whitley was used to a breakfast every morning of bacon and eggs. Apparently those things weren't rationed, or he got the full amount for their family. So, those two little extras about the history of the time add something to this film and boost its interest level some.

Directed by Alexander Hall, adapted by Harry Kurnitz, with a screenplay co-written by Walter Reisch, this comedy serves as proof positive that a good script is required for good comedy. Unfortunately, even though the film boasts a recognizable cast including William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, James Craig, Fay Bainter, Henry O'Neill, and Spring Byington, it fails to deliver many laughs and plays like an unhumorous version of Ernst Lubitsch's That Uncertain Feeling (1941).Powell plays a busy astronomer whose lonely, unsatisfied, gorgeous wife (Lamarr) of two years seeks an astrologer (Bainter), along with her neighbor (Byington), to find happiness. Lamarr does a pretty good job playing the airheaded woman (and half of the film's double entendre title, looking great in a silk nightgown), a brunette playing a stereotypical blonde (much like Merle Oberon did in the Lubitsch film), but the director seems to have thought having Powell was enough to generate laughs even with a weak script; it wasn't! Craig plays a well traveled news correspondent, who's currently an air raid warden, that doesn't appear until the film's middle third; just in time to make Lamarr believe that Bainter's prediction of a future love interest from afar has come true. Byington plays a busybody neighbor, and no friend to Powell's, that fuels Lamarr's interest in Bainter and her astrology. O'Neill plays Powell's exasperated boss, upset that the astronomer's interest in his comet discovery has waned, because of the turmoil in his marriage, just as they're about to announce it to the World.Powell's involved in some slapstick scenes, one with a garden hose and another dancing with Russians when his character experiences getting drunk for the very first time (interesting twist given his Nick Charles character in The Thin Man (1934) series), but the first scene comes across as mean and the second falls flat, literally. The writers must have thought that reusing screwball staples like revolving servants (the maid is fired and replaced with a new one almost daily; naturally, Connie Gilchrist plays one of these) and a cute, talented dog, would be funny as well. Craig gives a typically wooden performance, and not at all believable as a "man of the world", though the role required little (other than his Clark Gable- like looks) more than his presence for the purposes of this story. A now dated device is used to besmirch Bainter's character near the end; she's a ration hoarder. And, of course, a happy ending for the estranged couple is predictably delivered.

Enjoyed this silly 1944 Comedy starring William Powell, (William S. Whitley) and his wife, Vicky Whitley, ( Hedy Lamarr). Vicky is being badly neglected by her husband and seeks the aid of a woman Astrologist who predicts she will meet another man and fall in love. Vicky's husband Bill is a very famous Astromist who has recently discovered a new planet in the solar system and has no idea that his wife Vicky is not happy with him. Vicky does meet a handsome young man in her life who is a neighbor and is also an Air Raid Warden, which was needed during World War II. Hedy Lamarr looked fantastic in this film and her natural beauty is clearly shown along with her great acting abilities. Great actor William Powell gave and excellent supporting role and it looked like they both enjoyed making this film. This is a worth while film to view from 1944.

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this trite comedy, but it seemed to me to be all over the place. Hedy Lamarr plays a silly woman, who, neglected by her astronomer husband, William Powell, believes an astrologer who tells her that she will meet another man at a certain time. She does, and it turns out to be the neighborhood air raid warden, James Craig. She then announces she's leaving her husband, to his consternation.The heavenly body refers to Lamarr, of course, who is absolutely gorgeous in this movie as usual, if not much of an actress, also as usual. She did have one of the most exquisite faces of all time, though. The heavenly body also refers to Whitley's comet, a comet to be named after her husband.Powell handles the comedy well. It's a good cast, mildly enjoyable, but in the end, there's not much to it.