Make Your Own Bed

In those WW2 days of 1944 Alan Hale and Irene Manning are having trouble keeping their help. Jack Carson.is a detective who can't detect., but he needs a job. He and girl friend Jane Wyman go to work for Hale as butler and cook to find the nasty Nazi spies who are threatening Hale's munitions plant.

Carson and Wyman are as bad as domestics as Carson is a detective. Somehow through divine intervention he does detect Nazis. With an accent like Kurt Katch has it would be hard not to.

Carwon and Wyman are funny, but sadly Make Your Own Bed is one very dated WW2 era comedy.

Jack Carson and Jane Wyman star in "Make Your Own Bed," from 1944, also starring Alan Hale and Ricardo Cortez.

Carson plays Jerry, a private detective, who is in jail for arresting the DA. In jail, he meets Walter (Hale) there on a minor matter. Walter is desperate for a cook and butler. In order to get Jerry to work for him, he says that his life is in danger, a neighbor is after his wife, and Nazi spies abound. He also wants a cook, so Jerry talks his fiancée Susan (Wyman) to go along with him.

Walter does all he can to keep Jerry "on the case." He sends threatening letters to himself and hires radio actors to play spies.

Walter can't buttle, and Susan can't cook but they keep trying; despite there being no case originally, it turns out there is one after all.

Cute but dated, with Jerry presenting Susan as his wife and then being stuck in a room with her that has a double bed. It's a very slight movie, with decent acting. Carson was always pleasant and Wyman very talented and pretty, Hale appropriately uppity - all are good, there's just not much to the movie.

Exhibit A that the screwball comedy was still alive in 1944. Maybe not exactly well, but energetically kicking. Jack Carter's dynamism and Jane Wyman's comic versatility keep one involved in this fast-paced romp, even though the plot is nearly incoherent.

The framing device is a wealthy December-May couple, delightfully played by Alan Hale & Irene Manning, desperate to obtain household help for their country estate. Throw in Jack Carter as an incompetent & feckless would-be detective, stringing along his quizzical fiancée Jane Wyman.

Carter & Wyman's bumbling as butler and cook are hilarious, underscored by Manning as their ditzy boss.

A comical, but not exactly comical development involving Nazi spies--or are they?--gets hopelessly garbled. A strange plot device in 1944. Yet the charm of the principal actors makes for an entertaining time.

Due to the ongoing World War II, wealthy executive Alan Hale (as Walter Whirtle) is having a difficult time finding servants. With no chauffeur, he drives to town recklessly, and is thrown in jail. There, Mr. Hale meets private detective Jack Carson (as Gerald "Jerry" Curtis), who bungled his latest case by arresting the district attorney. Hale tells Mr. Carson he can look for Nazis on his estate, while posing as a butler. Carson agrees to assume the position, and brings along long-time fiancée Jane Wyman (as Susan Courtney) to serve as cook. Carson has trouble recognizing the Nazis, and Ms. Wyman can't cook a shaved duck.

"Make Your Own Bed" refers to the fact that Carson and Wyman have a long-time, but platonic relationship; and, things get uncomfortably funny for the pair while posing as husband and wife. They handle the matter with immature comedy. The cast and crew might have considered adapting this material a chore. Still, everyone puts in an effort. And, Hale excels.

***** Make Your Own Bed (5/26/44) Peter Godfrey ~ Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Alan Hale, Irene Manning

Funny guys Jack Carson and Alan Hale SENIOR ! every black and white film in the 1940s, 1950s had at least one of them, sometimes both of them. This one has the silliest, convoluted plot... it's 1944, so deep in WW II, so everyone is on the lookout for spies. For job security, Whirtle (Hale) hires on Jerry and Susan (Carson and Jane Wyman) as household help. but.. they aren't really married, and we're still way in the film code, so they shouldn't be sleeping in the same room, much less the same bed. this takes up a lot of the story... the bedroom caper, as they try to figure out the sleeping logistics. are there really spies running around? maybe. maybe not. it's a fun, silly script, but they needed some fun during dark wartime. some fun sight gags. and George Tobias, character actor for YEARS, before he ended up as Abner, the next door neighbor on Bewitched. this one is very well done. not many people could turn a spy thriller into a bedroom farce and keep it fun. why such low rating on imdb?? directed by brit Peter Godfrey. worked with some great stars, made some great films.