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What happened to the always reliable Gold-Digger Joan Blondell? Who is this inscrutable character with two modes--mostly big showgirl smiles, with occasional frowns? She has no discernable reason for rejecting a rich & handsome almost-royal...other than to lengthen this interminable slog, pretending to be a rom-com.

You say Groucho Marx co-wrote this; I'm truly shocked. It wasn't the Groucho i loved on "You Bet Your Life" or the hilarious performer in Marx Bros. Films.

I will say that Fernand Gravet showed considerable charm, for a character who is so undefined. Too bad he didn't make his mark in Hollywood.

The writers of this movie were undoubtedly familiar with the countless screwball rom-coms of the 1930's and were aiming for a similar movie.

They were probably thinking it was a surefire hit, with those glittering stars, Peter Lawford and janet Leigh. But, sadly those delightful screwball days seem to long be over.

The old-time movies brought it in fast and delightful; they told the story in a little more than an hour, and everyone (especially the audience) went home happy.

The premise of "Just This Once" has the right stuff--spendthrift handsome playboy, self-made, highly principled lawyer, who is also beautiful, scraping by on a tiny salary, plus her long-time (but unexciting) fiance who shares all her upright values.

We pretty know much know that, despite everything, the two stars Lawford and Leigh will wind up together. That's how screwball comedy works, right?

But what a long, plodding trip it is! It takes 90 minutes to wind things up and not too many laughs along the way.

Could rewrite have improved this movie--or, sadly, is the screwball comedy dead and buried? We hope not--but the magic just isn't here, despite the star power.

We are starved for British comedies of this era. We love movies with Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, of course Peter Sellers & Alec Guinness, and way up on our list, Margaret Rutherford.

Which brings us to why we watched this movie--she got second billing. Had never seen Norman Wisdom, but he's well-known, so why not give it a chance? Plus, we are big horse racing fans, & that's the main subject.

Sad to say, we were highly disappointed. No captioning for the film, so we struggled to understand some of Wisdom's Cockney dialogue.

A couple of the stock characters were mildly amusing: the battle-axe mother, also the battle-axe-in-training girlfriend.

Happy finally to see the wonderful Margaret Rutherford, but much too little & too late in the movie.

Mainly saw a succession of pratfalls and low comedy, very little Brit-wit.

The first & last time we'll watch Norman Wisdom--save him for the music halls.