Surprise-partie

When Kathie (french born Simone Simon) takes an apartment.... she realizes she's not the only one with a key to the joint. Johnny let Kathie sublet it, but forgot to tell her about his many friends wtih keys! Some fun special appearances; right at the beginning, Mel Blanc does the voice for the gremlin when Kathie spills the salt. And watch for the awesome Grady Sutton as George, the new, henpecked husband a few minutes later. Froggy Laughlin from Our Gang is the punk kid who comes in to use the bathroom. The landlord on the front porch is Chester Clute... he had minor roles in SO many things a parade of characters comes marching through... some are nice. Some aren't so nice. Johnny the marine is played by Bill Terry.... died young at 48. No cause of death given. We were still in the dark days of the hays film code, but they really pushed it to the limits... maybe they cut Monogram Pictures some slack, since it was a war-time flick, highlighting the housing issue at the time. When Kathie starts to fall for some of John's friends, it could be a problem! Kind of a light hearted war time bit. Directed by Joe May. Similar to Rafter Romance, from 1933, and Walk Don't Run from 1966.

When Simone Simon rents an apartment from William Terry, she thinks everything will be properly respectable. After all, he's a soldier with his marching orders, and she'll have the place all to herself for weeks. The only trouble is, William forgot to tell her, he also lent out a few copies of his apartment key to his fellow soldiers. . .

It sounds silly, and parts of it are, but Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore is hilarious! It's a cross between The Apartment and Young and Willing, with fast-paced quips and even faster situational comedy. Whenever you're in the mood for a cute black-and-white comedy about a situation of errs, rent this one. It's so funny, and even though Simone's accent is a little thick, she keeps up with the banter. "I'm Mike," James Ellison says. "I'm Jack," Chick Chandler says. "I'm going!" Simone answers.

Chester Clute and Minna Gombell, the married couple who own the apartment complex, are treated to quite a show as several uniformed gentlemen are seen coming and going from Simone's apartment-and in 1944, that just wasn't okay! Every time there's a new visitor looking for the old tenant, Simone informs then, "Johnny doesn't live here anymore!" and no matter how many times she keeps repeating the title, it never stops being funny. Plus, an extra funny side plot is that three of the visiting soldiers fall in love with her, and each think she's exclusive-imagine their surprise when they finally see other men coming and going from the front door!

If you need any more incentive to rent Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore, it features a young, insanely adorable and handsome Robert Mitchum. He plays a soldier named Jeff Daniels who's desperate to use the apartment because his wife's coming into town to help him enjoy his 48-hour leave. Described as looking "like a movie actor", he takes full advantage of every minute of screen time he's given; it's no wonder this was the last year before he started getting first billing!

"Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More" is a bad film...so bad that I really had to struggle to keep watching it. I noticed that most of the reviews were reasonably good with scores mostly in the 4-6 out of 10 range...but I truly hated the movie and would never watch it again even if I was paid to do so!

The film is a VERY quirky comedy and this soon becomes obvious when a gremlin (a very popular character created during WWII) appears periodically throughout the film. This mischievous jerk (voiced by Mel Blanc...would would explain why it sounds just like Bugs Bunny) decides to mess with Kathie (Simone Simon). It arranges it so she moves into an apartment that some jerk used before her--and he apparently gave out copies of his keys to EVERYONE...neighbors, guys, women and strangers. This causes problems for Kathie...though if she'd just replaced the lock all this would have become moot.

The film's problem is the writing. Most of it is simply not funny and too often the film creates quirky situations and characters instead of just making them interesting of truly creative. The gremlin gag wears VERY thin very quickly....but so do most of the funny plot twists. It's a shame, as some odd but interesting character actors appeared in this one and I wanted to enjoy it. Imagine...Rondo Hatton and Froggy from the "Our Gang" shorts in the same movie!

This film is simply a chore to watch and became tiresome...very quickly.

While a lot of unjustly forgotten films have been recently released on Warner Archives DVD, this one might have been forgotten for a reason. It's not exactly a terrible film, it just doesn't seem to work. The film's premise, about a woman who sublets an apartment from a Marine during a housing shortage, only to find that he's also issued a standing invitation for the use of the apartment to several of his male friends, has the potential for a wacky screwball comedy. Certainly Jean Arthur was able to turn a similar story line into classic comedy in "The More the Merrier". As this movie was the product of the low-budget Monogram Studios, someone of Arthur's caliber wasn't available, but the role might have been a good showcase for a reliable comedienne such as Lucille Ball or Betty Hutton. Instead, the role went to Simone Simon, who can't really milk the role for all its comic potential. It's hard enough sometimes just to understand her would-be wisecracks through her thick French accent.

The lead roles are played by James Ellison and William Terry, a pleasant-looking actor who deserved better roles than he generally got over the course of his career. The actors try their best to squeeze some laughs out of the material, but much of the comedy seems uninspired. The running gag of having a gremlin (a tiny little troll) appear throughout the story to sabotage everyone's plans may have seemed like a cute idea at the time, but it's just bizarre and unfunny.

Classic film buffs may appreciate seeing this mainly for the chance to catch some familiar faces, such as character actors Chester Clute and Minna Gombell as a pair of bickering landlords, and child actor Billy Laughlin in his only movie role (he was otherwise known as "Froggy" in the later Our Gang episodes). There's a brief, sad cameo by Rondo Hatton, an actor who capitalized on his severe facial deformities by appearing in B horror movies during the '40s. The gremlin is played by Jerry Maren, best known as one of the Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz", although he's unrecognizable in the gremlin costume. The gremlin's voice is unmistakably that of Mel Blanc. And the film features an early appearance by Robert Mitchum, whose charisma shines through in a small role here. His character is described by one of the others as someone who "looks like a movie star," which in Mitchum's case is prophetic, as he would become a star just a few years after this movie was made.

Despite its mediocrity, this film has a truly surprising twist at the end. So, with a 78-minute running time, it just might be worth slogging your way through it to get to the finish. Just don't expect too much along the way.

Fairly sharp script by Philip Yordan and John Kafka, from Alice Reeve's magazine story, about a working gal in Washington, DC who, because of the housing shortage created by returning WWII soldiers, accepts an apartment from a Marine on deployment. Unfortunately, he has also given copies of the key to all his buddies on shore leave, though our attractive heroine--Simone Simon, who keeps singing "Frère Jacques" to tell us she's a Frenchie--doesn't seem to mind the unwarranted drop-ins. For some odd reason, a comical Beelzebub (with what sounds like the uncredited voice of Mel Blanc) is injected into this merry mix-up of the sexes, as well as bratty twin boys who keep barging in unannounced to use Simon's bathroom! It all begins well enough before losing steam in the second-half, turning into a screwball romp with pie-in-the-face humor and the type of wrap-up in Night Court which seldom works. Noteworthy for an early appearance by Robert Mitchum (who has a funny bit flipping Simon onto a bed), but the laughs are spread pretty thin. *1/2 from ****