The Lady Has Plans

I loved this film. It's hard to get and/or see on TV these days, as many 40s films are. It stars, once again, the unbeatable combination of two of Paramount's top comedy stars, Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard. Goddard the gorgeous, I call her. She wears very luscious clothes and looks fantastic in them. The plot is mistaken identity and Paulette is the one who is being sought. She supposedly has plans of some sort of government secret tattooed in invisible ink on her back. The fun of the film is in all those villains attempting to get Goddard unrobed and catch a gander at the plans, as though that were what the audience was casting their eyes on. As in all screwball comedies, this has a happy ending with our hero and heroine swearing their love for each other in of all places, a turkish bath house.

Paulette Goddard is being posted to Lisbon, to assist ace newsman Ray Milland. Meanwhile, a gang of crooks have stolen some secret plans, and decided the best way to hide them is to tattoo them in invisible ink on Margaret Hayes' back. They also come up with the fiendish plan to convince everyone that Miss Hayes is Miss Goddard. This fails, so when Paulette gets to Lisbon, everyone thinks she is Miss Hayes, including spy masters Albert Dekker, Roland Young(!) and Cecil Kellaway(?).

Miss Goddard gets off a few wise cracks. Mr. Milland slugs Miss Hayes and the whole thing looks like someone wanted to make Sidney Lanfield eat crow, and so assigned him to this. I understand Buddy De Sylva was busy at this point trying to bring Preston Sturges to heel. He might have spent his time better on this production.

"The Lady Has Plans" is interesting for its content and timing alone. It's an American film that premiered on January 20, 1942. The U.S. had been in World War II just six weeks. That was two years after the start of WW II in Europe. Which means that this movie had been in the making since early in the war. Yet, some or much of its filming was done after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

While there's no indication that America was yet at war, this clearly is a WW II espionage film. It's part thriller and part comedy. A band of thieves steals military secrets to sell to the highest bidder. Nazi Germany is interested. So too is Great Britain. And, Japan is mentioned.

There is no presence of armed forces and no battles or military operations here. Rather, the action takes place mostly in neutral Portugal. Lisbon truly did become a city of spies and intrigue during WW II. This film gives an early peek at what Lisbon would become during the war. Several films during and after the war show the city as a hotbed of intrigue and espionage. It also was the great escape hatch for many who fled Nazi Europe for the Americas. That point is made in "Casablanca" and other films during and after the war.

The plot seems a little hokey - the smuggling of a secret plan drawn with invisible ink on a woman's back. But, it was certainly possible. A number of older movies were made about the use of invisible ink. In this case, the design of a secret American weapon is drawn with invisible ink on the back of an attractive woman spy. She has taken the identity of an American newswoman, Sidney Royce, who is being sent to Lisbon. The story doesn't divulge how the thieves knew about a reporter's transfer in time to hatch their plan and make fake passports and documents. But, the story unfolds with intrigue, occasional doses of humor, and some action when the real Royce gets to Lisbon ahead of the spy.

The cast all give fine performances. Ray Milland plays Kenneth Harper, head of the American news outfit. Paulette Goddard is Royce, the new reporter sent to help him. Roland Young is the British embassy intelligence officer and Albert Dekker plays the German embassy gestapo leader, Baron von Kemp. Margaret Hayes plays the female spy, Rita Lenox, and Addison Richards is the chief of the espionage thieves, Paul Baker.

Most viewers should enjoy this film. Collectors of war films and those interested in espionage films may want to add it to their film collections.

This is a rather weird spy thriller comedy with a lot of confusion into it, and not until towards the end the actions begin to make some sense and be interesting. Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard are always good and reliable as actors, they seldom disappointed any audience, and without them the film would have been nothing. Roland Young adds to the comedy, he is always an amusing success, but for the story, it is far-fetched and nonsensical and as far from any hint at realism as any constructed fiction yarn about spying could be. The finale is great, but before that there are just a tremendous lot of confusing loose ends of intrigue that stink of being just constructed to make some entertainment.

World War II. A female espionage agent has important Naval plans tattooed on her dorsal regions (making her the only person with a "Naval" on her back).

She travels to Lisbon to auction the plans off to the highest bidder, planning to travel under the name of a female reporter (Paulette Goddard) going to work for a tough-minded newsman (Ray Milland). Unfortunately, the spy is delayed so when Goddard arrives everyone thinks she's the agent, and they chase after her for the plans.

Clear, so far?

Roland Young plays the English agent who wants to see the plans before bidding. The Germans are also included in the auction. But Goddard thinks everyone is after her for herself. I've known women like that, myself. Young ropes Milland into the game, adding to the confusion.

The confusion generates some humor, especially from Young.

When she finds out the truth, Goddard ventures alone into the National Socialist embassy, fishing for a story. What could go wrong?

For such a slight little yarn this movie has a surprisingly strong cast, and they do what comedies are supposed to do: try for laughs. The third act turns serious, changing the tone and making it a tad schizophrenic. But it is wartime so a little propaganda is understandable.