Without Reservations

If you know John Wayne films it's not surprising that He could be humorous, even in his heroic roles that He usually portrayed. This film is amusing and the characters are appealing. It's good for a viewing every few years or so. The only problem is a that John Wayne is about 10 years too old for this role. Born in 1906, in 1946, when this film was released, He was about 40 years old. The reason that He wasn't actually in the military during WWII was that He was a little too old. Before His breakout success in "Stagecoach" Wayne spent nearly 10 years cranking out B-Westerns. For the remainder of His career He was almost always a little too old for His character, which was especially evident as He got older. Until his last few films, He was still playing the hero roles that got the girl in the end. I 've always wished that He had played more age appropriate character roles once he was in his 60s. It's only a small gripe, and He does well in this lite comedy.

Claudette Colbert chases a soldier "Without Reservations" in this 1946 film which also stars John Wayne, Don DeFore, and Ann Triola, with cameos by Louella Parsons, Cary Grant, Jack Benny, and Delores Moran as themselves.

Colbert plays a best-selling author, Christopher Madden, who has written a book about the world post-war - it looks to be a combination of "Gone with the Wind" and "Atlas Shrugged." En route by train to Hollywood to do the screenplay, she is extremely distressed to learn that Cary Grant will not be available to do the movie version.

She is writing a telegram to the producer when she comes face to face with her fictional hero in the flesh. He's a soldier named Rusty (Wayne) going to San Diego with his pal, Dink (DeFore). She doesn't tell them her identity, giving her name as Kit Klatch.

Kit decides she has to have Rusty star in the film so instead of boarding the train that will take her to L.A., she gets on the train going to San Diego. This leads to all sorts of adventures for the threesome, and it's obvious that Kit and Rusty, despite very opposing political views, have fallen in love.

Colbert is delightful as usual, and DeFore, kind of a Jack Carson type, is always pleasant to watch. The surprise for some will be John Wayne who's not riding a horse or wearing a cowboy hat. Frankly, this writer has always preferred him that way. I'm not a particular fan of westerns, and the plainclothes Wayne seems handsomer and less stiff somehow.

Here, he's playing the role of someone whose beliefs are close to his own in real life, i.e., somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan, while the Colbert character is a socialist. Tall and handsome, he does the romantic scenes well; one wishes he'd stayed out of the saddle more often.

This is a light, fun comedy that takes place in a world that, like Kit, doesn't quite know which direction to take post-World War II. Seventy-four years later, we still haven't figured it out, and "Without Reservations" remains an entertaining film.

Hello, I have loved this movie since I was 10 in 1947. I love John Wayne and Claudette Colbert in everything they do. This is such a cute, fun and romantic comedy it makes a person want to really "be there". It reminds me of "It happened One Night" with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, from a few years earlier. I love that movie, also.

Such fun! Thank you for listening. Florence Stockton Reno, Nevada

Many in the Hollywood elite belittled John Wayne. To get back at him for his Americanist views, liberals panned his movies and acting ability. If you have seen "The Quiet Man" or "The Searchers" or "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" or "The Sands of Iwo Jima" amongst many others, you already know that John Wayne could indeed act.

Watch "Without Reservations." My family loves John Wayne but who would have thought he could do comedy? And then do it well?

"Without Reservations" is a funny, amusing, delightful movie which is one of my wife's favorite (a New York City liberal by the way). Get a big bowl of popcorn. Sit back with your family and enjoy a lighthearted adventure. Cobert and Don Dafore are perfectly cast.

Most of these reviewers are pretty spot-on, so I can just add my observations: It was a complete surprise to see a John Wayne character deliver a book critique. I was off my pins for a while until he went into his "Why don't you just stop thinking." Movie was like a collision between Ayn Rand and Frank Capra. Still, very breezy, and we enjoyed the contemporary stock location footage of Chicago... with the cute cameo by Jack Benny (taking train back up to Waukegan, no doubt). Also, it presented an interesting peek, though filtered through Hollywood's cockeyed optimism, of a question that was surely on many people's minds. We've saved the world, now how shall we remake it in our image. Surely there were many Kit Masterson writing about what we should do, My theory has long been that the postwar world was most shaped by the GI Bill of Rights, which put a college education and new home within reach of millions of veterans, and created the American middle class, for good or bad. Having lived through the crises of our new century, it's interesting to see people who realized they were standing at other crossroads in history.