Have you ever watched a film that you were enjoying only to wonder, abruptly, if the writer went nuts? This is EXACTLY the way I felt with "I Met My Love Again". It's a dandy film through the first 80%--not perfect, but enjoyable. But then, in the finale, I almost wanted to scream because the film became a stupid and incomprehensible mess! So beware--the ending is just awful.

The film begins with Julie (Joan Bennett) and Ives (Henry Fonda) falling in love. However, he's in school and their engagement is quite prolonged. One day, Julie meets a very exciting author and he sweeps her off her feet--marrying her even though they barely know each other. Well, not surprisingly, he turns out to be a horrible husband and soon dies--leaving her without money but with a child (who is a real brat). With some money sent to her by her aunt, Julie returns home for the first time in a decade. Not surprisingly, when she sees Ives, their reunion is rather cold and she decides it's probably for the best to just leave town for good. However, when they see each other again, despite the years and hurt, he declares his love for her and they SHOULD have a happy ending, right? Well, perhaps eventually, but in the meantime all sorts of contrived monkey wrenches are tossed into the picture--and MANY folks try to prevent their marriage. To make it MUCH worse and utterly ridiculous, Julie decides to deal with one of the problems in one of the most insane and stupid manners you can imagine....no, I doubt if you can imagine just how nuts her behaviors are...yet, inexplicably, she's NOT placed in a psychiatric institution! What, exactly, happens in this ending? Well, see it for yourself...but don't say I didn't warn you. Overall, a decent film that becomes stupid very, very quickly.

This film was made by United Artists at a time (like most times) when that small studio was struggling...and it shows. Production values are low, and there are times that the script is weak. And, the quality of the negative clearly hasn't stood the test of time; the print being shown on TCM is very fuzzy.

Yet, there is something appealing about this film, despite all its problems. Perhaps it's the concept -- a woman tires of waiting for her intellectual fiancée to marry, has a fling of marriage and moves to Europe, her foolish husband dies in a rather bizarre way, and she returns to America and "meets her love, again". The question, of course, is what will happen when she meets that love again. And that is one strength of the film. Although I wouldn't exactly call them plot twists, the film meanders around a bit, so you're never quite sure where it's going. Sometimes the meanders are interesting, and sometimes they seem quite juvenile...as if the screenwriters were immature...they had decent ideas, but lacked the sophistication to make them seem reasonable.

I mentioned that sometimes the plot is weak, although perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the dialogue is sometimes weak. A good example is in the college classroom scenes where the students are behaving like middle schoolers and the professor like a poor high school teacher...despite his having become so distinguished. Rather juvenile script writing. There were a number of times while watching this film that I thought how good it could have been if it had only been made by a big studio.

The cast had potential. Henry Fonda is the fiancée/professor, and I would have guessed that this was one of his very earliest films. I was wrong. This was his eleventh film, and the one he made just before "Jezebel" with Bette Davis. For Joan Bennett, this was her 37th film (!). While she doesn't do badly here, it is clear that Bennett was not a first tier actress. Alan Marshall was a second or third tier actor, and again, that shows; it's almost as if he's trying to play Laurence Olivier...poorly. It's always a pleasure to see Dame May Witty in any film.

The most interesting scene is the climax -- a sort of Soloman-esque bit that is rather clever.

Okay to watch once, but I doubt you'll put it on your DVD shelf.

There was no way Henry Fonda was going to get top billing in I Met My Love Again, not playing opposite the boss's wife. Fonda was just getting his film career into high gear when he appeared with Joan Bennett who would soon marry producer Walter Wanger. And quite frankly this is what was euphemistically called back in the day, a woman's picture.

Truth be told I can see why Joan gave into temptation and ran off with charming, but dissipated writer Alan Marshal. Fonda quite frankly is something of a dolt back in their college days in courting Bennett. But after ten years when Marshal gets rather stupidly killed in an accident at a party, Bennett packs up their 10 year old daughter Genee Hall and heads back to Vermont to hook up with her old friend who is now a cynical and unhappy biology professor at their old alma mater.

In staid old Vermont Bennett's running off with Marshal was a town scandal and a lot of forces seem to be against them. Spoiled and rich coed Louise Platt and her jealous boyfriend Tim Holt and there's Fonda's mother Dorothy Stickney. And her daughter can't see anyone else in daddy's place.

I Met My Love Again didn't slow down the careers of either Bennett or Fonda, but it seems to have trouble making up its mind which genre it falls in comedy or drama. It never really lives up to the mark in either.