Kisses for Breakfast

That dreadful casting error is only one of many. Cowan was a good character actor and perfectly adequate as a lead in mysteries. But his comic timing, at least based on this horrible mess, did not exist. He also looks terrible, with a very noticeable double chin.

Shirley Ross is exceptionally unappealing as the first of two women Dennis Morgan marries. She overacts and is generally thoroughly disagreeable.

Morgan is shown in a lot of beefcake shots. And he was a handsome man. He's fine here, though I personally could do without his singing.

Jane Wyaatt is pretty and sweet as Ross's Southern cousin, whom he marries while he has amnesia.

One of the few amusing bits is a bum's looking at a billboard and giving Morgan, who has no memory of who he is, the name F.H.A. Homes. (He is later called Happy.) One of the very least appealing is the shower that first makes Wyatt and Morgan, later Ross, appear in blackface.

Rodney (Dennis Morgan) meets and falls in love with Juliet (Shirley Ross). But on their wedding day, Rodney is attacked and bashed over the head with a blackjack. When he awakens, he has no memory of the past. And, in the meantime, the crooks push his car into the sea and he's assumed to be dead. So, he's declared dead and he wanders about a bit until eventually he follows the one lead he finds in his possession...the name of a woman in South Carolina. This woman (Jane Wyatt) is the cousin of Rodney's wife...but when he meets her, he has no idea he's been married. After about a year, the pair marry....and Juliet is about to remarry. Rodney and his new bride arrive at Juliet's house for the wedding....and, not surprisingly, the house is up in arms with his arrival. Oddly, they don't confront him about already being married to Juliet. Instead, the servants think he could be a ghost and the first wife thinks he has some sort of amnesia or psychological problems. Regardless, folk behave so weirdly around Rodney that he and his new bride think that Juliet and her household are a bunch of nuts! Where does all this go? See the film.

The notion of a person losing their memory after a bad blow to the head is very possible. But it's also VERY unlikely to be permanent but only short term. For permanent or long-term amnesia, it would actually require some significant brain damage...the type that would get you hospitalized for a very LONG period. So, my advice is to take it all with a grain of salt....just accept the plot and don't question how logical (or illogical) it all is! If you can do so, the film is quite entertaining....and a bit silly.

While the film stars mostly second and third-string actors and has a plot that seems like a B-movie, it isn't, as the movie clocks in at 82 minutes...the length of an A picture. Maybe it should be seen as an A- film, as Dennis Morgan was a mostly unknown actor back in 1941 and the cast is pretty much a B cast.

So is it any good? Well, it has a plot that makes little sense...especially since if they think he has amnesia (which he clearly does). Why don't they just tell him this and let him know the truth??? This would work....but would also limit the movie to about 20 minutes! So, it's best to turn off your brain and just enjoy it for what it is. And, you really have to because what Juliet and her friends do...well, it's also totally screwy and is the sort of thing that ONLY happens in movies.

This is an "A" script with a "B" cast. Except for Jerome Cowan, Lee Patrick and Una O'Connor, the cast is not worthy of the material which is quite witty. I can imagine Jimmy Stewart, Rosiland Russell and Carole Lombard in the major parts. Then it would have been a classic.

This comedy is too wacky to merit much consideration, and I don't mean wacky in a screwball sense. While it is interesting to see Jane Wyman and Dennis Morgan in their roles, any romance is undermined by the unevenness and inanity of the dialogue. A case of inadvertent bigamy could be, and has been, a premise that promises comedy, but only if it feels like some of the characters have some real feelings involved. In "Kisses for Breakfast," there is no real conflict because there are no real emotions on the line.

Una O'Connor and Jerome Cowan are enjoyable as the maid and the perpetual suitor, adding the only humor with their rubber-faced reactions.

And it is curious to see the depiction of plantation life that is irrelevant to the story.

But there are much better films to see than this hapless "comedy".

Under two identities, one while suffering from amnesia Dennis Morgan marries two different women, Shirley Ross while himself and her cousin Jane Wyatt who Morgan meets while he's got amnesia. The circumstances for this bizarre occurrence I'll leave unsaid but it's both tragic and hilarious at the same time. Ross in fact thinks he's dead and is ready to marry stodgy Jerome Cowan.

When Wyatt gets an invitation to her cousin's wedding you can imagine how unsettling this all is. Especially since Morgan does not know who he is.

I'm in agreement that of course someone like Cary Grant or William Powell could have handled this better than Dennis Morgan, but Morgan does OK with it. Jerome Cowan is also all right in what would be the Ralph Bellamy role. Best in the film is Una O'Connor who gets all her information and advice for living from ye old Ouija Board. There's a bit role for young Cornel Wilde in Kisses For Breakfast.

A nice comedy from Warner Brothers B picture unit.