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.

Ronald Reagan was usually not at his best in comedy, but here he was excellent, possibly with help from director David Butler.

Some people have complained of Patricia Neal's performance, saying she didn't fit, but she was supposed to be the daughter of a rich couple and I thought she was perfect. In fact, I liked her better as Mary than as any other character I've seen.

Jack Carson could have been toned down a little; on the other hand, Wayne Morris gave one of his best performances, with just the right shading.

Oh, and Paul Harvey (NOT the radio announcer), as the general, was utterly charming, one of his best roles and performances out of hundreds. Interestingly, one of his first movie roles was as a colonel.

The whole cast, in fact, was great.

The story was cute, and there were some really funny moments, although I was fidgeting occasionally when it seemed on-screen delays were about to get everybody caught and in worse trouble.

That problem came from the stage origin. It didn't work perfectly in this film adaptation, but, heck, how much in life is perfect? All in all, "John Loves Mary" is a very good movie, with wonderful players in a generally enjoyable script. I recommend it.

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.

Patricia Neal in her screen debut is "Mary" and she loves "John," played by Ronald Reagan in this lightweight comedy, "John Loves Mary." She expects him home from service any day and wants the moment when he sees her to be just right, with "Someone to Watch Over Me" playing. But things are never that easy. Not with fellow serviceman Jack Carson involved. Jack did save his life once. Therefore, Ronnie felt indebted to him. But an attempt to help Jack out with his love life backfires on Ronald and he and Patricia have to wait to get married due to him being married to Jack's foreign girlfriend to bring her into the country. But it seems that upon meeting Jack, he learns that, despite the fact that Jack couldn't live without her, he had married someone else since then. What a pickle! Ronnie is trying to keep all this from Patricia and her politician father, played Edward Arnold. I saw this almost twenty years ago and I thought I had memories of liking it. But upon seeing it recently, I found this to be too stagy, due to its play origins, too silly, and a little annoying at times. One would probably like this for the people in it, but the situations feel forced to me and I really didn't find it to be that funny. In fact, afterwards I felt that it wasted the stars and it was all a to-do over nothing, despite the affable dispositions of Ronnie and company.

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.