Showing posts with label Rita Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rita Johnson. Show all posts
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| Robert Young meets Robert Young |
Movie star Brooks Mason (Robert Young) is constantly besieged by admiring fans who are so aggressive they put him in the hospital. One day, however, it is not Brooks but his double, George Smith (also Young) who is "assaulted" and winds up admitted to emergency. From there he is taken to the home of Brooks Mason, whose butler (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) thinks he's seeing double. Brooks comes up with a plan. He will return to Honolulu, where George hails from, to take up his quieter life for a spell, while George takes over for him temporarily in New York and Hollywood. The complications are that Brooks -- pretending to be George -- falls for a dancer, Dorothy (Eleanor Powell) on shipboard -- but George already has a fiancee, Cecelia (Rita Johnson of The Naughty Nineties), in Hawaii. While the leads are okay, Gracie Allen [We're Not Dressing] provides the most fun as one of Dorothy's friends [George Burns has much less to do]. Clarence Kolb of My Little Margie plays Cecelia's disapproving [of George] father. Featherweight but harmless.
Verdict: Amiable stuff and nonsense. **1/2.
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| Madelaine Carroll and Fred MacMurray |
DON'T TRUST YOUR HUSBAND (aka An Innocent Affair/1948). Director: Lloyd Bacon.
Advertising man Vincent Doane (Fred MacMurray) is trying to land an account which happens to be controlled by his still-amorous ex-fiancee, Margot Fraser (Louise Allbritton of Fired Wife). Vincent's wife, Paula (Madeleine Carroll), thinks he's spending all his evenings with a Mr. Fraser, but she suspects something's up. Vincent's sister, Eve (Rita Johnson of The Naughty Nineties), comes up with the dubious idea of testing her brother's love for her sister-in-law by seeing how jealous he gets if a paid actor pays too much attention to Paula on their anniversary. Clued in to the scheme, Vincent invites the man into his home and even asks him to take out his wife the next night! What nobody realizes is that the man in question is not the paid actor, but rather wealthy cigarette man Claude Kimball (Charles "Buddy" Rogers), who thinks the Doanes have a wonderfully carefree attitude. This all sounds rather cute, but it's almost by the numbers, with not enough real laughs -- although there are certainly amusing bits -- to make it stand out from the crowd. MacMurray is terrific, as you would expect, and the ladies are all good if not on his level. Alan Mowbray offers his customary fine performance as a man who pretends to be Margot's husband, and Anne Nagel has a small role as a receptionist. Rogers gets by on charm. Bacon also directed Crooner and many others.
Verdict: Cute, if formula, comedy. **1/2.
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| Phyllis (Ella Raines) before her makeover. |
Phyllis (Ella Raines) is a plain but lovely woman who works for a bitter man, Paul (Bruce Bennett), whose pretty wife ran out on him. He sends Phyllis to Los Angeles to stay with a friend, Claire (Rita Johnson of Sleep, My Love), who tries to get her a job with a fashion house as a designer, but since she's required to do some selling on the floor first, she isn't hired due to her appearance. She goes to work for Claire's fiance, Allan (Roy Roberts of The Gale Storm Show), who is fooling around with a client's pretty daughter, and is "romanced" by the slimy Jerry (John Sutton of The Invisible Man Returns), who only wants to use her designs for himself. Phyllis is racing to prevent a possible murder when her car smashes into a truck -- now there's a chance that surgery can make her as attractive as she's always dreamed ... Most of the male characters in The Second Face are pretty loathsome. One guy breaks off with his fiancee by sending a telegram to another person, expecting her to relay the bad news to the rejected woman. An aging businessman (Pierre Watkin) is unspeakably blunt and cruel to Phyllis just to make a point about advertising. Meanwhile no one makes the point that Phyllis' sweet demeanor and feminine, charming aura would certainly make her appealing to some men, and none of her lady friends suggest make up or a new hairdo. In any case, Raines' performance is excellent, and the supporting players are adept enough. Eugene Vale's screenplay is often psychologically astute. Raines also made a good impression in The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry but was less effective in Impact. Kathleen Freeman has a nice bit at the end as a homely-but-happy married lady whose husband likes her just the way she is.
Verdict: An appealing Raines helps put this over. ***.