Wise Girl

Years later the plot device of a paternal uncle and maternal aunt in a custody battle was used in the Clark Gable/Sophia Loren classic, It Happened In Naples. Only in that it was Sophia who was the Bohemian and Clark the square. Wise Girl does not have the international setting or the color location cinematography of the later film, but Ray Milland and Miriam Hopkins do play a pair of spirited antagonists.

Miriam's father Henry Stephenson who is rich enough to spoil Miriam had cut off her sister back when she married out of her class. Now with both his daughter and son-in-law dead he'd like custody of his two granddaughters. Miriam will be his accomplice in that endeavor.

But the trick is to get them away from their uncle Ray Milland who has them. He's a struggling artist and he supports the girls with odd jobs here and there. Miriam moves into Greenwich Village incognito to be near them all and naturally as things go in these type films she falls for Milland.

Looking at the set I can see where Alfred Hitchcock got the idea for his Greenwich Village set in Rear Window. And we meet a whole lot of colorful characters there and not just through a telescope. Milland's closest friends are prizefighter Guinn Williams and aspiring actor Walter Abel who has a bit of a thirst problem. Marianna Strelby and Kim Philson play the two young girls and Margaret Dumont has a great small part as the snooty woman running the Child Welfare League.

Wise Girl may not show Miriam Hopkins at her wisest, but it's a great comedy in the screwball tradition of the Thirties. Best scene is the chaos she causes at one of Guinn Williams' prizefights. Milland has his moments as well, especially trying to unsuccessfully sell vacuum cleaners door to door. All in all a lot of laughs.

Society heiress Susan Fletcher (Hopkins) and her wealthy father Simon Fletcher (Henry Stephenson) are vexed that their young nieces Joan (Betty Philson) and Katie (Marianna Strelby) are living a Bohemian lifestyle in Greenwich Village with their artist uncle John (Milland) after the death of their parents (Susan's sister and John's brother). Simon has given up trying to convince John to allow he and Susan to take care of the children and have resorted to using private detectives to catch him in either unbecoming behavior or unemployed and therefore unable to care for the children properly. Susan finally decides to take matters into her own hands and goes to Greenwich Village herself, posing as an actress, to try to gain information and/or persuade him to see reason. What she discovers however, is that she not only likes the free and artistic lifestyle John and his friends are living and that the girls are being brought up well, but that she is quickly falling in love with John. Inevitably, her true identity is discovered and she is faced with the task of convincing everyone on both sides of the custody debate who should belong with whom.

I really enjoyed this film, and found that its very short running time (70 minutes) was the perfect length to spin this simple but endearing story. Miriam Hopkins, one of the great 1930's-1940's actresses is delightful in this film. Her energy, style and wholesome beauty really lend themselves to creating an endearing character, even though you know that she's pulling a fast one on the people she quickly befriends. This is the earliest film I've seen Ray Milland in, and he was actually young and non-patrician looking. (And apparently three years younger than his co-star) His energy and carefree manner in "Wise Girl" were a refreshing change to the demeanor he affects in his usual, darker, films. Honestly, though I am usually not remotely a fan of child actors, I really enjoyed the two young girls who played Susan's nieces. They were endearingly precocious, and were really the jewels of the film. Unfortunately, I can't dig up any other films that either of them were subsequently in after this one, which is a shame since both exhibited a large amount of natural talent.

"Wise Girl" was a film that was made three years after the Hollywood Code was instated, and to some extent, this was abundantly clear by the quick, happy ending, and the pie in the sky loftiness and ease with which the characters lived. The alleged Bohemian co-op was in fact a gorgeous cul-de-sac where the artists lived for free or for trade, and everything is tied up very nicely throughout. Fortunately, this was a light enough film and the characters were charming enough to make allowances for its fluffiness and short-comings and I was able to just take "Wise Girl" for what it was; a good old-fashioned love story that was as entertaining as it was endearing. Unfortunately, films of the romantic comedy/drama genre today are considerably less intelligent and entertaining, or I wouldn't find myself continuously returning to the classics. 7/10

Of all the major 30s star actresses, Miriam Hopkins ranks among the most bizarrely overlooked and underrated. Her string of excellent 30s and 40s films is quite impressive but she is often referred to as being stagy or brittle. Yet she had a great sense of humor and was memorable in several comedies, including this film, Old Acquaintance (with Bette Davis), and The Smiling Lieutenant (with Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert). Hopkins was famous for her dislike of Hollywood, and the results has been a bad rep -- undeserved.

In Wise Girl she play an heiress trying to rescue the children of her dead sister from their guardian -- the sister's brother-in-law (Ray Milland), an artist who works at odd jobs. The film offers several hilarious scene such as Hopkins taking a bath is a storeroom, Hopkins joining Milland and Guinn Williams in a Greenwich Village restaurant for $3 apiece to act as "Bohemians," and Hopkins going ringside during one of Williams' fights. Milland is also excellent and very funny.

Hopkins and Milland make a great couple. The film also boasts solid support from Williams, Walter Abel, Henry Stephenson, James Finlayson, Margaret Dumont, Grace Hayle, Leonid Kinskey, and Inez Palange. The two girls are OK.

But Hopkins, drunk on a "slice of wine" and wearing a pinned-together dress that is twice her size is hilarious as she blows at stray hairs while smoking a cigarette with a long cigarette holder.... A scream.

Hollywood's version of Greenwich Village is way off of course, but the courtyard complex Milland lives in, filled with artsy types, is quite impressive. Hopkins and Milland make a grand comedy team.

A girl and her rich father are keen to look after her deceased sister's daughters. However, her late brother-in-law granted custody to his brother who is an artist with a bohemian lifestyle. Lawyers say that they can do nothing so the daughter investigates.

Reasonable comedy with a serious message that money cannot buy everything. Miriam Hopkins and Ray Milland star and show their comedy talents. Do watch out for James Finlayson and also Margaret Dumont in cameos.

Forced, cloying, formulaic. Do these adjectives make you want to run to rent his? Miriam Hopkins was brilliant in the original "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde." A few other early movies of hers, notably "The Story of Temple Drake," are never shown but said to be excellent.

Here, she is cutesy, bossy, and thoroughly unappealing. Ray Milland as a Greeniwch Village bohemian not at all convincing.

The two child performers are creepy and also bear no relation to the Village as it was then.

Speaking as a native of Greenwich Village, I find the setting ersatz, generic, and phony. Not that I was around for a couple generations but my relatives were there in 1937. It isn't funny. It isn't remotely authentic. We don't care about the characters.

So many movies were made about the struggling masses vs the capitalists at this time, and done with elan. "Easy Living" comes to mind. It didn't take place in the Village. But it rings very true. This rings with a thudding knell.