The Hangover of Size

When I recommended Whisky Galore! a few weeks back, I think I mentioned that it was part of a night of movies commemorating the 100th anniversary of the start of Prohibition. Another of the movies that ran was The Big Hangover.

Van Johnson plays David Muldon, a man about to graduate from law school and, being at the top of his class, getting a spot at the bottom of the ladder at a prestigious law firm. One of the partners, Belney (Percy Waram), is celebrating his birthday today, and his daughter Mary (Elizabeth Taylor) is bringing him to the firm for the party.

Unfortnately for David, the party means that everybody is celebrating with a cup of punch that has most definitely been spiked. Logically, David should just say he's a tee-totaler, but no, he has to think he can reform himself and start drinking again. The predictable result is that David starts talking to one of the lamps.

Mary notices this and takes David aside. David tells her his unusual story. He's not really an alcoholic or anything like that; instead, he was in World War II and get a spot in law school thanks to the GI Bill (hence why he's an older starting lawyer). While he was fighting in France, he was injured and recuperating in a monastery. The monks there produced a fine brandy, but the Nazis staged an air raid that left David trapped in a cellar with burst bottles of brandy, up to his neck in the stuff. Apparently his pores soaked up enough brandy that he got some sort of alcohol poisoning that results is his becoming a wacky drunk every time he takes even a sip of alcohol. Mary likes David and decides to try to help him.

Meanwhile, the David is about to get in trouble with the law firm, not that he realizes it. The firm represents a tony property management company that has decided to keep one of its upscale developments whites only if they can help it. However, somebody has sublet to a Dr. Lee (Philip Ahn) and his wife, and the company is trying to renege on the contract. City Attorney Bellcap (Leon Ames) is trying to force the company to abide by the terms of the contract. David takes the side of Dr. Lee, not realizing that the law firm is taking its client's side.

The Big Hangover was produced at MGMin 1950, I'm guessing under the aegis of Dore Schary, since I can't imagine Louis B. Mayer approving the anti-discrimination subplot. The movie is an odd little mishmash with the lawsuit plot being social drama but the rest being almost slapstick comedy. It doesn't always work, largely because I found one of the law firm partners, Parkford (Gene Lockhart) to be shockingly mean-spirited. Not because of the Dr. Lee case, but because he's learned about David's alcohol problem -- and decides he's going to surreptitiously spike David's food at a serious banquet just to watch him become a wacky drunk!

As for the stars, Johnson and Taylor are both appealing enough, and the supporting actors are as good as the script allows. It's just that the script is a mess. trying to do two wildly disparate things and not really doing either of them as well as it could.

The Big Hangover got a DVD release courtesy of the Warner Archive collection, and is currently on the Amazon streaming service.