Eve Knew Her Apples

Eve Knew Her Apples (1945)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Lighthearted remake of Frank Capra's It Happened One Night has a famous singer (Ann Miller) running away only to be picked up by a man (William Wright) who she doesn't know is a reporter. This is pretty much a scene by scene remake of the Capra film but it removes a lot of footage and just mainly copies the most famous scenes. There's nothing overly funny about this comedy and Ann Miller is a complete bore but fans of the previous film will be slightly entertained by seeing that film redone. Wright certainly steals the show and makes for several nice moments but the screenplay really doesn't allow him to do too much. The film runs a short 64-minutes and goes pretty quickly throughout.

It didn't take me long to realize that what I was seeing was a complete re-do by Columbia Pictures of 'It Happened One Night',except this time with music. It seemed that even the same sets were used in a number of cases. The characters almost look like clones of original cast. You even have the Shapley character who threatens to expose the two lovers if they don't go along his blackmail scheme. Ann Miller is an absolute delight. Whether or not her voiced was dubbed or not, it all comes over very effectively. It's just too bad she couldn't have gone into one of her dance routines. The film only runs 64 minutes but it's worth every second of it.

The rating is higher than it ought to be simply because it is fascinating to watch a great movie remade on the cheap for no particular reason other than Columbia already owned it, and comparing it to the original.

I walked in on this in the middle. I love Ann Miller, so I kept watching. Suddenly I was hearing very familiar dialog. Hokey smokes, it's "It Happened One Night" only without the lighting, directing, production values, pacing and acting.

The sheer audacity of taking a classic (the only picture to win all five major academy awards up to that time) and turning it into a B semi-musical boggled the mind. I even was able to recite the script ahead of the actors (and better).

Contrary to the previous comment, they really did use the original brilliant dialog all over the place. It just goes to show that even a work of genius can be destroyed when placed in the wrong hands.

This film appears to be a remake of It Happened one Night. Took me a little while to figure it out, as this movie deals with a radio singer who is trying to give her producers and managers the slip. The plot for it happened one night is not as evident in the first part of the film as it is in the last say, half of the film. There is a scene where Miller and Wright attempt to sleep in the hay on some farm and up crops verbatim dialog taken from the Clark Gable/Claudette Colbert flick: That was were the tipoff was.

The only reason I liked this at all was Anne Miller. She was as good a singer as a dancer. I'll watch any flick with Anne Miller in it any day.

Actually as a remake this flick is not bad. Due to the lack of interest in it here, I suppose it flopped at the box office. It is too bad: because this film is just as entertaining as any of that years "A" movies. Just to sit in the theatre and look at Anne Miller was worth a quarter. But probably due to a lack of publicity (and the fact that there was still a war on)- I have never heard of this movie until Today.

The "Big Radio Band" theme kinda works with Anne as she had a pretty good voice and a good range, but is almost a waste of Ann's dancing talents. We never get to see the famous long legged full body shot of Ann. THAT is a disappointment.

Ann Miller was borne to grace the screen, it is almost impossible to get a bad shot of her face or other assets. This is the only film I have seen where she has the female lead, and she takes it.

This film has not been shown in so long that I thought maybe it was one of the lost films that are so often talked about. Recently Turner Classic Movies showed a fairly good print, so they must have gotten it out of Columbia's vault.

This remake of "It Happened One Night" changes the plot enough to suit Miller's talents, but retains a few of the original plot devices. However, don't judge this film by the original. This one is strictly fluff to showcase Miller, who even though a "B" star, made plenty of money for Columbia in films like this.

Miller doesn't dance at all in the film, but she does a creditable job singing four songs, and looks great (at age 22!). In her autobiography, Miller mentions good reviews she got for her singing, so I'm assuming that she didn't need dubbing. In all of her films, her singing voice sounds the same, not that this is any proof.

The title must have been chosen to insinuate more to the audience than is actually delivered. Nevertheless, if you like just looking at Ann Miller, you'll enjoy this film. After all, it's only one hour long.