Errol Flynn showed he was very capable of making light comedies and "Four's a Crowd" is his best one by quite some way. Once again, Michael Curtiz is the director and Olivia De Havilland is Flynn's leading lady. The script is a bit corny in all honesty but at least "Four's a Crowd" isn't depressing or melancholic. It takes a bit of getting used to, seeing Errol Flynn in a contemporary setting. An undemanding film but quite amusing.

Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Rosalind Russell in a screwball comedy? These are the kinds of cast ensembles which unleash the inner fan boy in me. Errol Flynn rarely got the chance in his career to perform comedy and here he proves he was cable of doing Cary Grant-esque comedy on the same level as well, Cary Grant. Sadly Four's a Crowd's lack of box office success prevented Warner Bros from putting him in more comedies. Although The Women is seen as the film which launched Rosalind Russell as a fast talking comedic actress, Four's a Crowd is the first film in which she plays such a character and her first turn as the working career woman (or "newspaper man" as she refers to herself here) which became synonymous with with shades of Hildy Johnson coming through. She takes full advantage of the role, stealing the show with her impeccable timing which reportedly made Olivia de Havilland envious. De Havilland though is tasked with playing a dim witted character which she performs without coming off as annoying as such characters can easily be.Four's a Crowd owes a certain debt to Libeled Lady featuring some similar plot trends and themes with its slam on the upper classes, the socialite lifestyle and the desperate lengths newspapers will go to in order to get a story. Even the opening title sequence is taken from Libeled Lady in which the cast do the same arm in arm walk but is full of moments of inspired zaniness to distinguish itself. The model train sequence which lasts for 16 minutes had to have come from creative minds; plus what's funnier in an innocent, cute kind of way than grown men playing with model trains. However there is one moment in Fours a Crowd which is one of the most bizarre gags I've ever seen in a film in which after escaping from a pack of guard dogs to the other side of a gate, he grabs one of the dog's legs and bites it. I still don't know how to react to it, weather I should laugh or be horrified or both! The plot gets very confusing very fast but in a good way culminating in a finale in which Errol gets the wrong girl at the end! Although the manner in which this happens is screwball antics at its finest.

This is certainly a film that has not stood the test of time so when they say "Why don't they make movies like they used to?", I am sure they were not referring to this film. The plot is silly and very hard to really get interested in, and the 90 minutes it runs for is certainly long enough. I know believability should not come into it, but this one really stretches the imagination too far. If we saw the dogs chase Errol Flynn once more, I would have had to turn it off! The role they gave Olivia de Havilland was an insult to her ability, and the same could be said For Rosiland Russell, but there was more meat in her character so it was not as much a travesty. Patric Knowles had about his biggest role, and unfortunately for him, it did not work too well. Some of the character actors in supporting roles were adequate. It proved to me that when partnered with Flynn, Miss de Havilland should have insisted on Adventure or Western scripts.

Four's a Crowd is a silly, goofy, and at times hard to follow comedy with the all-star duo of Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland. The film at times is funny and boring. There is a lot of telephone conversations featured in the film and it gets kind of tiring after awhile. Errol Flynn is at his goofiest in this role. This role is unlike his others in past roles. Roles such as Robin Hood, Captain Blood, and The Charge of the Light Brigade, where in those roles he plays jolly, kind, respected people. In Four's a Crowd he's a crude, annoying, and pushy person. Even Olivia deHavilland's role is different from her past ones. In this movie she's downright annoying and childish. She was 22 at the time and she acts like a 15 year old. The script of this movie is rather poor and includes segments in the film that have "been there, done that" written all over. This could of been a great and funny movie if there was a stronger script and director. Michael Curtiz doesn't have to direct every film Errol Flynn was in. There more actors to work with, then just Errol. I perfer Roual Walsh and William Kieghley's work with Errol Flynn than Kurtiz's. *1/2 out of ****