Wise Girl

Sometimes it's hard to define what separates a successful, delightful comedy from one that falls flat. In this case, the contrived plot about a spoiled rich girl who schemes to take her nieces away from the Greenwich Village 'bohemian' who is raising them, only to fall for him herself, is not promising. And nothing in director Leigh Jason's filmography suggests that he was an overlooked major talent. And yet he must have been responsible for creating a relaxed, happy atmosphere on the set that was faithfully recorded on film.

He also had the good sense to cast this movie properly. The one small flaw is Miriam Hopkins in a part that Ginger Rogers would have been perfect for. Hopkins is efficient but brittle, lacking the warmth and sexiness Rogers would have had. She is further hampered by a pair of bizarrely long and sooty false eyelashes that are sometimes a distraction. But a very young and very handsome Ray Milland couldn't be better in an exuberant, uninhibited comic performance of great charm.

And better than that, particularly for New York City residents, is the Hollywood depiction of Greenwich Village in 1937. Though completely synthetic and idealized, it remains recognizable to a contemporary viewer. Art director Van Nest Polglase created an amiable jumble of mews apartments and ramshackle shared backyards that is the perfect backdrop for this picture's collection of artists, strivers, smart-alecks and wannabes. Best in the supporting cast is Guinn Williams, bringing sweetness and light to his role as a prizefighter-sculptor-dressmaker, suggesting the self-invention and fluidity (sexual and otherwise) of life in the Village. Even more refreshing are Betty Philson and Marianna Strelby playing the little girls. Plain, intelligent and full of humor, these girls seem like real human beings and are nothing like the professional child actors of the time.

Of special interest are a couple of memorable comic set-pieces: Ray Milland's vacuum cleaner demonstration to a woman with a howling baby is played with more spontaneity than one expects (the baby and his contortions are marvelous 'found' moments) and a phony domestic 'play' in a department store window that degenerates into a free-for-all is also fun. The movie slides slowly downhill with a straight-faced custody trial and then never quite gets back on track when the action moves to Long Island, but this movie is still worth a look.

Miriam Hopkins shines as Susan "Susie" Fletcher, the ever-resourceful, vivacious leading lady to whom this title alludes, and Leigh Jason directs this delightful Allan Scott - Charles Norman penned Comedy from RKO-Radio Pictures, which features Marianna Strelby and Betty Philson, each in her only screen appearance, as the children quickly becoming embroidered in a bitter custody batter between their wealthy maternal grandfather, Mr. Simon Fletcher (Henry Stephenson), and their free-spirited, impoverished Bohemian paternal uncle, John O'Halloran (Ray Milland).

By morning light, Susan Fletcher returns in brilliant evening gown to her wealthy father's estate, in Fletcherville, New York, several miles north of Manhattan, from whence her Russian Prince trio of escorts, Prince Michael (Ivan Lebedeff), Prince Ivan (Rafael Storm) and Prince Leopold (Gregory Gaye), transport her, to discover 1st Detective (Richard Lane) and 2nd Detective's (Tom Kennedy) meeting Simon Fletcher, to announce that they've discovered his granddaughters abiding in Greenwich Village, after returning from Europe with their guardian uncle, John O'Halloran, who works three jobs to support them.

But when Simon tells Susan that he cannot legally take custody of his late daughter's children because her late husband has entrusted their care to his brother, for as long as John can provide for them, Susan realizes an idea without a workable plan, to move into Greenwich Village under the guise of a poor but friendly stranger, to see what she can do to help her nieces.

(It may seem uncanny that the brother-in-law wouldn't know the sister-in-law, nor the nieces their aunt nor grandfather, but Miriam Hopkins and company make this plot to work very well because who would know what to do next in a situation as difficult as this and still maintain light-hearted manners?)

Anyway, Susan packs an overnight bag, and conceals nearly $100 in cash, but making believe that she's broke and malnourished, upon arriving in Manhattan, and into the pawn shoppe of Dermot O'Neil (Alec Craig), at which John O'Halloran bargains with Flute Seller (D'Arcy Corrigan), whom Susan champions to no avail.

When Susan requests of Dermot free accommodations, she finally meets nieces Katie O'Halloran (Marianna Strelby) and Joan O'Halloran (Betty Philson), who suggest that she stay in the laundry room, offering a dough-nut, before John's disapproval of her smart attire and carefree attitude.

John's friends, Karl Stevens (Walter Abel), a drunken artist once married to an heiress whom Susan knows, and Mike Malloy (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams), a fledgling boxer, befriend "Susie" after George (Jean De Briac) returns and freely enters her quarters while she bathes. Not taking lightly to this lack of privacy, Susan confronts John from within the laundry tubs, as he plasters the ceiling above her entranceway.

But when John later discovers the money in Susie's purse, John suspects Susie of impersonating a poor person, but Susie finds out about it after hearing Katie and Joan's gossiping in French, a language which Susan understands and clears the mistrust among them.

In addition to his position at Dermot O'Neil's, John paints signs for a department store, and seconds Mike Malloy as boxing manager. Dermot tells Susie that he cannot fire John from the pawn shoppe because John owes him too much back rent, so she inadvertently gets him fired from the department store, where she takes a job as an actress in the store window, as Actor in Department Store Window (Jack Rice) makes a play for her, and John sticks up in her defense, causing Jake Kelly, Department Store Bouncer (Frank Moran) to end his employ.

At her Italian restaurant, Mama Guido (Mathilde Comont) hires John to paint a wall mural and Susie to add atmosphere, but when the three Russian Princes arrive, Susan must quickly think of a plan to send them off before they recognize her, once again, costing John his commission.

In the boxing ring, Mike's Fight Opponent (Frank Hagney) begins to get the better of Mike Malloy, and the Fight Referee (Eddie Gribbon) names the winner of the match, but this, neither, helps John O'Halloran and his financial situation.

Now, losing jobs left and right, Susie suggests that John enter a painting contest because of his talent for fine arts, but John tosses a knife at the want ads, to select a situation as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, during which time he demonstrates for "Fat Mother with Baby Wilbur" (Grace Hayle) until Baby Wilbur ends up missing somewhere in the apartment.

By now, Mr. Simon Fletcher has John O'Halloran right where he wants him, and arranges for a custody hearing to claim Katie and Joan. Susan, beginning to change her tune about Katie and Joan's situation, pleads with Simon to give Susan a little more time to work things through, but the ball is set into motion for John, Katie and Joan to discover Susie's true identity.

Mrs. Bell-Rivington (Margaret Dumont) testifies before Chief Judge at Custody Hearing (George Irving) of the improper conditions which John O'Halloran provides for the children, with Simon Fletcher and company on one side, and John O'Halloran and friends on the other. When Joan is asked to testify, Dr. Barry, Court Psychiatrist (Maurice Cass) claims that the children remain healthy in John's unconventional environment.

So, it is up to Susan Fletcher to turn the tables one way or the other once she decides how the better interests of each party involved ought to be served.

But when her plan to inspire John to paint for the magazine art contest seems to backfire, Susan enlists the assistance of Motorcycle Cop #1 (Edgar Dearing) and Motorcycle Cop #2 (Eddie Dunn) "to do a little murder," to frame someone to serve jail time.

Russell Hicks has a role as David Larrimore, the magazine editor, who may be able to provide a helpful solution to the situation at hand, with a little edging from that "Wise Girl" herself, Susan Fletcher.

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.

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.

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.