Have You Seen It?

Country of Origin: United States of America. Presented by William Fox. Produced, written, and directed by Howard Hawks. Scenario by Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton. Starring Olive Borden (Eve), George O’Brien (Adam), Phyllis Hayer (Alice Atkins), Heinie Conklin (Eddie McSwiggen), and Andre de Beranger (Josef Andre). Running time: 70 minutes.

Howard Hawks’s Fig Leaves is a genuinely funny movie about marriage. It begins with Adam and Eve at the beginning of mankind and then jumps forward to modern times (in this instance, the 1920’s) to give us a glimpse into the marriage of Adam Smith (George O’Brien) and Eve Smith (Olive Borden). It is evident that from the beginning of mankind to the 1920’s to today, not a lot has changed in marital relationships.

The story’s taking-off point is that Eve tells Adam at the beginning of mankind, upon inspecting her wardrobe, that she has nothing to wear. The movie is funny because we can relate to Adam and Eve with their marital strains and different perspectives. It works because it makes light of these situations with characters we like.

The fact that Hawks would look back to the beginning of human history, although not original, is inspired in its looniness. This quality throughout the film is saved from becoming eye-rollingly ridiculous because we know the situations being portrayed to have a modicum of truth.

Howard Hawks is successful at establishing and then sustaining this comic mood for the whole film. This mood is sustained by filling the cast of characters, both lead and supporting, with genuinely comic qualities. Among these are Josef Andre (Andre de Beranger), a conceited fashion designer who thinks significantly more highly of himself than anyone else would care to. Another is Eddie (Heinie Conklin), Adam’s modern-day assistant, who frequently offers Adam hilariously bad advice on how to treat women given that he clearly knows nothing about them. And then there is the serpentine Alice (Phyllis Hayer), making suggestions to Eve to influence her behavior and to act out her own selfish designs.

Fig Leaves was the second feature film directed by Howard Hawks and it proved to be a solid step forward to greater successes. It is a movie for those who want to familiarize themselves with the talents of Howard Hawks and for those who just want to laugh out loud — and maybe feel a little understood. Fig Leaves deserves to be uncovered.