The Heavenly Body (1944)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is such a ridiculous and silly film that I found it impossible to watch all of it, as it was simply too exasperating and irritating. MGM must have realized they had a turkey on their hands because they employed seven screenwriters, including even the British novelist Michael Arlen, and hired a second (uncredited) director, namely Vincente Minelli, to try and save the film. But all failed. William Powell and Hedy Lamarr were the stars, and they did very well. But their valiant efforts and those of the seven screenwriters and two directors, were all for nothing. The fact is that it was a ludicrous project commissioned by idiots. The main theme of the film is that William Powell, an observational astronomer working at a big telescope (clearly mean to be Mount Palomar), has a beautiful but pin-headed wife who takes astrology so seriously that she will not let him touch her on Tuesdays and according to her chart she must leave him for another man she does not know. The irony of having Hedy Lamarr, probably the most intelligent female star in Hollywood, play the stupidest woman in the history of films, is extreme. The film is an absolutely disgusting attempt to make a comedy based upon the premise that women are unspeakably stupid. One does not have to be a feminist to want to throw up.

I usually avoid watching movies that get less than a 3-star rating on the Turner Classic Movies channel but maybe I should reevaluate that policy because - being a big William Powell fan and an admirer of Hedy Lamarr - I decided to watch this movie, having never seen it. Glad I did. Yes, it's got its silly side - but so do many comedies. What's really significant is that it features William Powell at his comedic best, with many brilliant creative and hilarious scenes you just have to see and enjoy. Though this is a flawed movie, it is nonetheless engaging and highly entertaining due to Powell's ability to conjure up some of the most ingenious funny scenes ever. Though Hedy Lamarr is a ditz here and not necessarily the kind of character most men would want as a wife (being quixotic and ruled by astrologers), there are in fact women like this (I was married to one) and so even her part rings true to those of us who've "been there." So...silly but not so silly. Yet...really really funny! And you don't have to be a William Powell fan to like this one. Enjoy! (You will!)

"Heavenly Body" is not a bad film, though it isn't all that good either. As a result of indifferent writing and a typically wooden performance by Hedy Lamarr, it's just a pleasant little time-passer. And, as a result, you can see why Joan Crawford passed when the part was first offered to her.The film begins with a happily married couple--the astronomy professor (William Powell) and his pretty wife (Lamarr). Though very happily married, Hedy's love for her husband vanishes almost completely just because a local astrologer tells Hedy that she'll fall in love with another. This is a VERY weak point in the film. After all, if their love is that fragile, why should the audience care AND why should Powell try so hard to try to win her back from her new beau (James Craig)? I felt throughout the film that Powell would have been better off with this faithless idiot. But, he works hard to win her--and a few of his actions are pretty funny. Overall, the film offers few surprises and Powell is his usual competent and clever self.By the way, didn't it seem odd Hedy played a French woman and not a Austrian? My guess is that the US was at war with her country of birth at that time and so she was supposed to be French!

very dull, this conveyor belt programmer from MGM does'nt even have decent sets to distract the eye, as was the norm with this plushest of studios. the script is a piffle on a par with a substandard 70's TV sitcom, and badly overextended. powell was always a class act, but MGM had given up on lamarr by 1943, when it was evident wartime audiences were not excited by her lack of charisma. hedy became a 'household word for glamour, but lacking the spark of personality prevented her from becoming a box office star' according to famed film historian leslie halliwell. and with glamour lacking here, she's merely dull. avoid. she was better - just - in h.m. pulham esq., or white cargo even,