During World War II, the United States government enlisted the help of Hollywood in order to promote the Allied cause.  There were obvious propaganda films designed to highlight American commitment to victory by showcasing our industrial might and military prowess.  The Department of Defense also had a hand in more mainstream productions, sometimes editing scripts in order to insert messages to the viewing public of the rightness of our side and vice versa.  If you do not believe me, please feel free to read a book or two on the subject . . . like I did . . . while studying for my Ph.D. in American History. . . .  I also offer you a condensed version of either watching Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), or reading this review of it.  If you choose the latter, know that, as always, I will be applying my Catholic analysis to the story, one that has some ideological cross over with Faith.  With the way the Church was involved in the major studios, it makes sense to do so, though that applies for practically any movie from this time.

Before Katie O’Hara (Ginger Rogers) has her Once Upon a Honeymoon, she is posing as Katherine Butt-Smith, fiancée to the Baron Franz Von Luber (Walter Slezak).  The setting is Vienna, Austria, in 1938, and the Anschluss is about to happen.  In other words, Austria is about to get “schlussed,” or taken over peacefully, by Hitler and the Nazis.  Also in the city is newspaper reporter turned radio broadcaster Patrick “Pat” O’Toole (Cary Grant).  He, along with his colleague, Ed Cumberland (Harry Shannon), believe that the Baron is a Nazi, and suspect that he is helping Germany take over various countries around Europe.  Sensing a story, Pat decides to get close to the Baron through Katie.  Posing as a dresser sent to take her measurement, he quickly senses that her airs of not caring about her fiancé’s German connections are false.  Further, he recognizes her as the former burlesque dancer that she is, which we discover earlier during a phone call back to the United States with her working-class Irish mother.  It does not mention whether she is Catholic, which would be a stereotype, and one not fitting with her pride over her daughter’s former trade.  At any rate, Pat promptly decides that the Baron is no good for her, and proceeds to follow the couple around Europe, even after they are married in Prague.  By the time they get to Warsaw and Katie decides that the Baron is no good, World War II has begun in earnest with the invasion of Poland.  With Nazi occupation comes the rounding up of people of Jewish heritage, including Katie’s maid, Anna (Natasha Lytess).  To avoid Anna being arrested with her two children, Katie gives the servant her American passport and some money to escape.  Meanwhile, Pat’s own papers have been destroyed when the hotel is destroyed during the battle.  As they are hiding, the only documentation found on them belongs to Anna, and they are taken into custody.  They are freed by representatives from the American embassy and they resume their work tracking the Baron through much of Europe until they get to Paris.  Once there, they go to the photography studio of Gaston Le Blanc (Albert Dekker) intending to get new passport photographs taken.  Pat gets his done first and leaves for a moment to purchase them some new clothes.  While he is away, Gaston reveals that he is an American spy and he wants Katie to resume her relationship with the Baron in order to get more information as to German plans.  He appeals to her sense of patriotism, and her evident love of country has her saying yes.  Doing so means putting the plans Pat has for them on hold, which he reveals in the next scene, including the suggestion that they get married.  To accomplish this, he says that he is to give a couple broadcasts in Bordeaux before they can sail for the United States.  She says this sounds wonderful, but the next morning Pat cannot locate her.  Sitting in front of one of the many Parisian cafés a few days on, he soon learns that he is sitting next to the Baron.  The Austrian Nazi lets on that not only does he know about their movements following him through Europe, but that she has been inquiring about the kind of information about which only somebody engaged in espionage would ask.  Always ambitious, the Baron blackmails Pat into doing a radio broadcast aimed at the United States saying how great are the Nazis, particularly the Baron.  At the same time, Katie is caught meeting with Gaston and is taken into custody while the spy is shot.  She is able to escape confinement in her hotel room, though, because, as luck would have it, Anna is a maid.  Swapping places, Katie gets away and is able to attempt to stop Pat from going on the air.  I say “attempt” because he has changed the script to make it sound like the Baron is too ambitious for his own good, and had accidentally married a Jew.  As the Baron now has to answer awkward questions, Katie and Pat make their way to the next ship crossing the Atlantic.  They are not quite in the clear, however, because while Katie is walking the deck, she encounters her former husband.  In their struggle, she throws him overboard, and my heart stopped a moment when I thought it was her going into the sea.  Instead, she runs panicked into Pat’s arms, eventually explaining to him what happened.  Pat manages to tell the captain, but any rescue is called off when it is revealed how close is the Baron to Hitler.  This means Pat and Katie are finally free to marry once they get to America.

Because Once Upon a Honeymoon was made during World War II, the amount of propaganda you see in it should not come as a surprise, as alluded to in the introduction.  Based on what I wrote above, you would not get much of a sense of a Catholic hand in this production.  Indeed, if you were to focus on the interactions of the characters early on, you might think they had little to do with Hollywood.  After all, marrying someone simply for their money, or being a burlesque dancer, is not exactly Godly behavior.  One could put Pat’s advances in the same category.  While it is clear from the beginning that the Baron is not a good person, his pursuit of Katie is underhanded.  Further, as they roam around Europe, she is still a married woman.  Luckily, this is filmed at a time when there was at least some sense of propriety when showing such relationships, meaning we do not see them making love.  Had this been shot today, we would have been shown an entirely different dimension to their acquaintance.  This is a major reason why I have been enjoying older movies of late.  It means there is one less thing to worry about while I am watching them.  Having said all this, they make it a point to say that the Baron divorced Katie, which paves the way for her to be with Pat.  Still, all this is trivial compared to the transformation undergone by Katie.  A key aspect of Faith is the realization that there is something out there bigger than ourselves.  Unfortunately, in recent decades we have been collectively behaving like this is some new revelation instead of fitting it into the framework we have been given through the Church for the past two thousand years as instituted by Jesus.  Getting back to our story, in the beginning, Katie is solely focused on what she wants.  The same can be said for Pat, but at least he sees the Baron for the Austrian villain he is.  God tries to reach us in so many ways.  Sometimes it is by coming face-to-face with evil like the Nazis that gets us to step out of ourselves and do His will instead of our own.  When you do for others, like giving your passport to a Jewish family, you will be rewarded, sometimes in this life as Anna does for Katie, or in the next.

Speaking of rewarding experiences, Once Upon a Honeymoon is one.  Sure, there is some heavy-handed patriotism in it, but it is also funny and sweet.  It also does not hurt that it has Grant and Rogers in it.  One of these days I am sure I will run out of Cary Grant movies to see, but until then, this one gets my recommendation.