ksf-2 Review of She Wouldn't Say Yes

She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945)

not quite as good as His Girl Friday, but fun anyway

[8/10 · 1 December 2009]

Minor Spoilers - This one comes five years after "His Girl Friday", my personal R.Russell role, but ten years Before she will be one of the Auntie Mames. Pretty clever script, but the pacing in the middle third of the film is strange and slow, and it has something to do with the triangle between herself (a headstrong psychiatric doctor "Susan Lane"), comic-strip writer Michael Kent (Lee Bowman) and "Allura the bombshell starlet" played by Adele Jergens. Kent claims to be madly in love with the always-confidant Doctor Lane, but gets distracted by Allura when she gets in the way. Susan resents Kent's free-wheeling ways, even though it appears her father has the same trait. Some great scenes on the train, when they are "accidentally" assigned the same train sleeper berth. But... of course this was made while the film code was in full force, and the conductors, porters, and passengers all just assumed they were married... it seemed a little more shocking to the viewer until someone says "your wife", and the truth all comes out later, of course causing a stir. The writers tackle a couple different large issues here; women's rights, free will, doing what one wants even if society frowns on it, proper conduct for un-married people. On the train, there is a character who looks and sounds JUST like Mel Blanc, but it must not be him, since he's not in the credits. The last third of the film picks up steam again when they trick Susan into getting married, which was a little far-fetched and drawn-out, but somehow they manage to convince her to go through with it. Harry Davenport saved this movie, and steals the show as the hobo turned butler. You'll recognize him as the older, wiser father-figure in about half the films made in the 1930s and 1940s. Lots of writers listed on this one, and for the most part, they did a good job; I guess I was hoping for the same magic that we saw between Russell and C Grant. Here, "Allura" upstages the others in this one, and if were director, I'd have toned down her part. Directed by Alexander Hall, who, according to Wikipedia, was dating Lucy until she met Desi, and ironically they later hired Hall to direct "Forever Darling". Fact IS stranger than fiction.