John Loves Mary

Overall, a good cast. This was obviously a much better play as the dialogue suffers from the restrictive censorship code of the time. Patricia Neal's debut demonstrates why she was never known for light comedy. The most curious thing is that the budget is listed as $1.3 million. How is that possible? Similar movies of the day weren't even close to that budget.

Even at a much younger age, PATRICIA NEAL looked too smart, strong-willed and intelligent to play flighty feminine leads in the kind of wacky romantic comedies the Warner studio was used to churning out. She looks almost ill at ease in a role which calls for a bright-eyed ingenue like Joan Leslie who would have been ideal for this sort of thing.

But the rest of the cast has a high time playing the hi-jinks of a script based on Norman Krasna's Broadway play. Jack Carson is especially able as the sort of lovable dumb guy (with those great double takes that he specialized in) caught up in a situation involving a British woman (Virginia Field) who is supposed to be coming to the states to marry him. When the arrangements are delayed, he meets and marries someone else without telling her. She finally makes it to the states and he and pal Ronald Reagan get caught up in a series of lies that complicate Reagan's relationship with fiance Patricia Neal.

Of course, all of the misunderstandings could have been cleared up if someone just told the truth--but then there would be no picture.

Edward Arnold as a pompous senator (was there any other kind?) and Wayne Morris as a serviceman friend hired to help deceive everyone are both experts in this kind of farce. Kathleen Alexander does a nice job as Arnold's patient wife.

Patricia Neal would have to wait awhile before Warners found some suitable roles for her--but this film debut was almost successful despite the obvious miscasting.

Just saw this today on TCM and really enjoyed it. While the story was in some ways like an extended TV sitcom plot, it was very clever. It kept me smiling and I got at least one big laugh and several smaller ones from this movie. It involves servicemen returning from WWII, problems the war created for separated lovers, and how a little lie escalates to cause big problems. Most of the movie takes place in just a couple of locations making me wonder if it was originally written as a play. The movie had a very good cast. I always have liked Jack Carson and Ronald Reagan had a good touch for this comedy. There were a number of other familiar faces like Edward Arnold and Wayne Morris who were very dependable actors. And the guy who played the general must have been on dozens of TV shows in the 50's through the 70's. While I wouldn't rush out to buy the DVD, it certainly is worth a look on TV. BTW, it wasn't listed in my older version of Maltin's Movie Guide which seems like a curious omission.

This was Patricia Neal's film debut, and in the first fifteen minutes I had to wonder if somebody was going to haul out the vaudeville cane, get her by the neck, and take her offstage. She was completely over the top. But then she gets more believable and settles down. On the surface it is light romantic fluff - Mary (Neal) is waiting for her soldier, John (Ronald Reagan), to come home from war. If you find the first fifteen minutes taxing, stick around. It gets much better.

Very quickly this plot becomes what was intended to be a good deed that turns into a tangle of problems. You see, John ran into his war pal Fred's (Jack Carson's) best girl in England. They would have been married, but Fred could never find her after the war and she was presumed dead. The only way that John could figure to get Fred's best girl -Lilly - into the US was to marry her himself, bring her to the US, get a quickie Reno divorce, and then Fred and Lilly can be married. The problem is, John never bothered to run this idea by anybody else - specifically his fiancee, Mary, and even Fred himself! Very quickly John finds his good deed overcome by events. Let's just say that in Fred's case he made peace with the fact that Lilly was dead and "life goes on". Specifically life is going on when John returns with Fred's wife in labor at the hospital. Plus Mary's parents - her dad is a Senator (Edward Arnold) - want John and Mary to be married in a week!

How will this all work out? Watch and find out. Ronald Reagan just fills the screen with that beaming smile of his. Jack Carson was always great as the guy who would like to be the villain but is just not smart enough to be anything but a patsy. Here though, he is just the nervous victim of circumstance. There are lots of twists and turns in this one and there isn't a boring moment in it. Highly recommended and a great surprise.

John Loves Mary was a popular post World War II Broadway hit that ran for 423 performances written by Norman Krasna. Movies and plays about returning servicemen from World War II were glutting the market at this time. Everything from The Best Years Of Our Lives to Buck Privates Come Home to run the gamut from the serious to the funny.

On Broadway the cast included William Prince, Nina Foch, Tom Ewell, and Lyle Bettger in the roles that Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson, and Wayne Morris repeated on screen. The one that really doesn't compute is Lyle Bettger who played such a lovely variety of psychos on the screen. I just can't see him doing comedy or it must have been quite different his interpretation of the blowhard ex-officer that Wayne Morris was. Actually all the stage cast members did have some substantial screen careers.

Reagan is the John in the film who is coming home to his fiancé Mary played by Patricia Neal in her screen debut. He did real well for himself she being the daughter of US Senator Edward Arnold and Katharine Alexander with a lovely Park Avenue apartment. But it turns out that there's a slight hitch in the wedding plans.

What a guy won't do for a friend, especially one who saved his life during the war. Jack Carson who got his discharge earlier from Uncle Sam is pining over the British girl he left behind. Well Reagan knowing the problem that folks were having coming to America with immigration hurdles, marries Virginia Field and gets over as the bride of a GI. The idea being that they'd take a quick trip to Reno and then Jack Carson can marry her.

All that's needed is a ruse to get Reagan out to Nevada without Neal. And that's what the rest of John Loves Mary is about. It all resolves itself in an interesting way showing none of these people taking those sacred vows of marriage all that seriously.

John Loves Mary is a pleasant if dated comedy. But it's ironic as all heck that with people having real immigration problems and looking to the USA as a beacon of freedom, I think the joke would fall flat with them. Ditto with gay people who are now trying to get the right to marry seeing these people shifting partners like shooters switching off dice in a crap game.

Anyway I'm sure Norman Krasna who wrote this and Warner Brothers who brought it to the screen weren't thinking that deeply here.