Pillow to Post

Ida Lupino was mostly known for drama but she does well in comedy. Its too bad the script wasn't as good as she was. It has some laughs and cute moments but it misses the mark as a screwball comedy or a farce. It is still enjoyable and worth seeing.

It is fun seeing Greenstreet in a non villainous role.

Mildly amusing wartime programmer about housing shortage for service couples. Jean (Lupino) finagles an army officer (Prince) to pose as her husband so she can get restricted housing in a motel court. Naturally, "who sleeps where" type complications ensue as they work to keep up appearances. The pace picks up as the difficulties mount, ending finally in madcap farce.

The cast tries hard to make familiar material for the time work. Still, seams do show, especially with Lupino's sometimes over-eager performance. Clearly, she's anxious to show she's as good at comedy as she is at dramatics. Then too, when movie buffs think Greenstreet, comedy doesn't come to mind. But here he plays an unlikely over-weight colonel to pretty good effect. (Note how the script deals with this fudging of army fitness standards.)

The colorful mix of supporting characters includes a mischievous little Robert Blake, a busybody Ruth Donnelly, a bug-eyed Willy Best, and an addled Stuart Erwin. Together, they manage to keep the chuckles coming. The movie, however, doesn't rise to the first rank, perhaps because the elements don't blend into a seamless whole—you can almost see the characters and situations being assembled. Nonetheless, it's a generally entertaining glimpse into what titillated audiences coming out of the big war.

I enjoyed Ida Lupino in a comedy as much as I ever did in her many dramatic roles;I think her timing is excellent. William Prince is not as skilled, but he makes a good foil for her character in this story.

For its time, the plot was probably considered slightly racy, but was handled so well, you'd never notice. I felt it had just the right touch on an old game, mainly romance, with the added benefit of light comedy that makes it appeal to women and men. The supporting parts were well cast, especially Sydney Greenstreet, who could also do great work in comedy and drama.

I only wish this were available on VHS, or even better, DVD.

Jean Howard (Ida Lupino) is a single 30 year old in L. A living off of her oil tycoon father's money. With all the men away at war, she convinces him to be his new oil well supply salesman despite never working a day in her life. It's not going well but she refuses to come home. With the wartime shortage, she stumbled upon housing near an army base but they only take in army families. Lt. Don Mallory gives her a lift and she recruits him to be her fake husband. He's forced into the situation when his commanding officer Colonel Michael Otley gets involved. In addition, potential client Earl Clark is interested. Louis Armstrong and Dorothy Dandridge do some music. Willie Best is the local driver Lucille.

This is a fun rom-com. I like Ida's sassy fake-crying try-hard character. William Prince is fine as the mild-mannered do-gooder. It would work better if he's dumber. He would be easier to manipulate by Jean but he does have good banter with her. I'm still not sure that I buy him going along with her scam but a good rom-com does require some disbelief. This is pretty good. I like these characters. Their sitcom silliness is fun. I actually like this love triangle where all the sides are nice interesting characters. It's not winning any awards but it's still fun.

Sweet, silly little trifle is merely an excuse to see Ida Lupino get a chance to put the heavy dramatics aside briefly as a career girl who becomes more pixelated as the complications pile up.

The story addresses the wartime housing shortage and some of the subterfuge that had to be resorted to just to have a decent place to rest your head at times. Of course misunderstandings abound.

Ida is charming and adept at comedy, William Prince is fine but it's a shame that since she rarely did comedy she didn't have a chance to costar with one of the master of the form like Cary Grant or Clark Gable. Sydney Greenstreet is funny as Prince's commanding officer as always relishing a chance to also break from the villain role and play comedy.

All together a cute little ride with nothing important to say but a nice little picture nonetheless.