Lady in a Jam

This is not one of her better or better known films and Patrick Knowles, handsome Brit, is not quite up to her stature as a big movie star but she IS charming as usual and there are a few laughs and Ralph Bellamy in support is also a welcome player, as is Eugene Palette. Irene is doing here a screwball comedy in which she excelled but the script is not up to her usual comedies, including THE AWFUL TRUTH and MY FAVORITE WIFE. Still if you are an Irene fan, its worth a visit for an hour and a half. Miss Dunne was at RKO and then went to Universal...This was at Universal and she would soon go over to MGM and make some of the best films of her career. She is beautiful as always.

Irene Dunne has spent all the money left in trust for her, but refuses to change her ways. Her trustee, Eugene Pallette, seeks help from the medical foundation established by her grandfather, and they send him to psychiatrist Patrick Knowles, who tries to change her outlook on life with a trip to Arizona to visit her grandmother. Granny won't give her any money, but will let her try to revive the big gold mine. Meanwhile, childhood sweetheart Ralph Bellamy sings her dirges about dead loves.

Miss Dunne was a star of several excellent screwball comedies, but this is not one. Even with Gregory LaCava directing and co-writing, it never gels, even though the engaging cast of eccentrics played by comic actors keeps it interesting and reminds the audience that he did, after all, begin as a cartoonist.

Irene Dunne is a "Lady in a Jam." She has gone bankrupt and her possessions are being sold in an auction to pay her debts. But she is oblivious to her plight and doesn't take anything serious. Her lawyer or accountant, played by Eugene Palette, has been after her about her inevitable situation. But she has done nothing to help herself, but buy stuff on whims. When Eugene goes to a psychiatrist (Patric Knowles) to get her some help, things get crazy. The situations from then on feel contrived and unrealistic, but at the same time it's bizarre enough to keep you interested, like a car wreck. It's not really that funny, but is only fairly amusing and is a disappointment as one of Irene Dunne's films. She is convinced by Patric to go back home, where her eccentric grandmother and ex-beau (Ralph Bellamy) live. "Lady in a Jam" is only for die-hard Irene Dunne fans, and even those will be only modestly entertained.

Lady in a Jam is a fun and surprisingly enjoyable little film. The great discovery for me was the male lead, Patric Knowles. I've never heard of him before but think he did a swell job in his development of his character, a reserved, unflappable counterpoint to the high strung and moody character so well played by Irene Dunne. The story is simple but effectively conveyed by the two outstanding leads. Some of the supporting characters are colorful and only add to the overall quirkiness of the film. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the very ending of the film, but I guess I can appreciate that they avoided sentimentality and kept it light and humorous till the very end.

Gregory LaCava was one of the greatest directors of madcap comedy film in the Thirties. W. C. Fields, a good friend and drinking companion, not a man known to waste compliments, once said of LaCava: "I hate his guts, but he's the greatest director that ever lived." Fields often asked LaCava, uncredited, to direct him in scenes in other director's films. LaCava has left us two well-made,original films under his own name: MY MAN GODFREY (1936) and STAGE DOOR (1937), as well as many lesser films, LADY IN A JAM (made at Universal in 1942) being one of them. The film has some wonderful actors--among them, the enchanting Irene Dunne as the ditzy heiress reminiscent of Kate Hepburn in BRINGING UP BABY; Ralph Bellamy as the bumbling songwriting cowpoke; Eugene Pallette as the growly trustee of Irene's failed estate; and little Queenie Vassar as the owner of the abandoned gold mine. The major fault in the film, however, is the choice of Irene's co-star, the handsome and likeable Englishman actor Patric Knowles. Cast here as a confused innocent, a psychiatrist who abandons his profession to be chauffeur and nursemaid to the heiress. The script by LaCava's longtime collaborator Eugene Thackery doesn't give him much to do other than to act frustrated or befuddled. Consequently, the romantic moments don't come off. Perhaps Henry Fonda or Cary Grant might have made something more of the underwritten role, but sadly Knowles, competent and likeable as he was, had none of the others sexual allure. We wonder why a dynamo like Dunne would have found someone so passive attractive. Despite the silly and often improbable story, there are many delightful moments, perfectly staged and cast by the great La Cava. His career came to an end in 1948 with another miss, ONE TOUCH OF VENUS with Robert Walker and Ava Gardner, but his best work lives on.