A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

When a director tackles a film project that combines comedy and drama...well, the result can be a big thumbs up or a big thumbs down. In this case, it's a big thumbs up.The dramatic aspect here is a college professor who decides to read a controversial piece in his English class -- Vanzetti, a real-life anarchist. If he goes through with it, a rich alumni may go to war over the college curriculum. A subplot involves the wife having innocent fun with a former flame.The comic aspect here revolves around 2 characters -- the former flame and the rich alumni.It all works pretty well, and despite the laughs still makes the point about freedom of speech and freedom of thought. There are a couple of flaws, including a way too long drunk scene; it needed to be in the film, but it went on and on. On the other hand, Fonda's penultimate scene in the auditorium was very well done.Henry Fonda is ideal as the professor who goes on a limb. Olivia de Havilland is just fine as his wife, who is torn between having a little fun and being all too serious. Jack Carson is appropriately buffoonish as the old flame (and football player). Eugene Palette is a hoot as the alumnus...with that wonderfully odd voice. Hattie McDaniel is here as, what else, the maid. Ivan Simpson is good as the Dean. And Don DeFore is pretty good as the somewhat clueless (in social situations) football captain.I like this film a lot, and I think you will if you're a Fonda or deHavilland fan.

This is one of those films that's slipped through the cracks of being mentioned as funny for it's day. My guess is it wasn't very popular but I'm glad it exists, cause it made me laugh.A professor of a local college is married to the pretty girl from the same college. She was the popular one and he was the smart bookish type. It works until her old college boyfriend shows up and. Amongst all this he decides he's gonna read a letter for an English class to show his students about how good the composition is. Turns out the letter is considered "red" or commie and the school's trustees don't want it read and threaten his job if he does. He has too many things too concentrate on like the letter and his wife's old boyfriend trying to rekindle their old romance so he gets drunk and decides the best thing to do about his wife is to let her do whatever she wants....basically....give up and quit the relationship. What will be will be.An All-Star cast really brought the best out in this one. Look out for Jack Carson and Eugene Palette. They really did a great job with their roles. Eugene Palette plays the stodgy ant-commie trustee perfectly. It couldn't have been played better. De Havilland got this role at the right time being she was at the right age to play the perky former college cheerleader.This film has a lot going on in it. It's got too many characters and inter stories to mention. It's just funny and well written all the way through. It wasn't lost on me the heavy handedness of the "free speech/ant-communist" undercurrent they laid on this film but it doesn't detract from the fun too much. If you happen upon this one...grab it...watch it...and laugh.

Henry Fonda is a college professor in danger of losing his job and his wife in "The Male Animal," also starring Olivia de Havilland, Jack Carson, and Joan Leslie. Fonda plays a happily married intellectual. On the weekend of college homecoming, his wife's former beau (Jack Carson), a jock, shows up, giving rise to the professor's insecurities. He's having problems in his teaching life as well when an editorial states that he plans to read a letter from Bartolomeo Vanzetti (of Sacco and Vanzetti) in his English composition class. The trustees aren't happy and want him to state that the article is incorrect. As he is up for a full professorship, his wife hopes he will back down also since three teachers have been fired for being "reds." This is an odd film with a very timely message about censorship and its dangers that by itself would have made a good movie, especially with wonderful actors like Fonda and de Havilland. However, the home situation was played for comedy. This film didn't seem to know which it was. If I were to guess, I would say the studio wanted a comedy and the dramatic part was downplayed. It's a shame, because there was nothing special about that part of the film, except that Jack Carson was very good.The Henry Fonda character discovers that he has to become "the male animal," i.e., one who fiercely protects his home, and not only his home, but his role as a teacher as well. Today, when "Brokeback Mountain" isn't being shown in all areas, and more censorship is being urged, this is a good movie to see if only to remind us that the this is a war that has been fought for years. Nowadays I wonder if we're winning.

Henry Fonda is our intellectual, idealistic professor at Midwestern University. He is married to a woman much younger than him played by Olivia de Havilland. Fonda is going to read a letter as an example in his English class to give an example of great speeches written by illiterate people. The problem is, the man was condemned as an anarchist and traitor and sentenced to death. This gets the trustees of the University bent out of shape and try to stop him. His wife, an ex-cheerleader is being romanced by this ex-football QB played by Jack Carson. They once dated and he feels less of a man around him. The trouble in his professional and domestic life propel this comic satire. This film is based on the play by Elliot Nugent who also directs. Obviously, this movie is taking on current issues of the day to which I am unfamiliar but eager to research. It is so current that it can be applied to today's environment and politics; people who are fearful and criticize things they haven't heard or seen as the letter Fonda intends to read; nobody knows the contents. The pressure to conform and governments who censor political opinion that is dissenting or alternative, school bodies who train our students to focus on the material issues over the immaterial ones. For, the Chancellor is only interested in the winning football team they have and he feels that has ensured his greatness and reputation making him a man to be reckoned with. But other things make a man and Fonda who probably has delivered the best monologues in movies in such movies as The Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry men, Ox-bow incident, Mister Roberts and Fail-safe delivers another one here that makes the movie. Study this movie for its take today on the follies of censorship.