Le stranezze di Jane Palmer

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.

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.

I was long awaiting this film as I love all things Irene Dunne but I must say I was disappointed. "Lady in a Jam" is a strange amalgam of screwball comedy and classic romance. It never seems to gel as either. I kept waiting for the film to pick up pace but it continues on at a slow, lackluster pace. There are the talents of character actors Eugene Pallette and Samuel S. Hinds to boost the film and leading man Patric Knowles is certainly handsome. But the movie just never really interests me. The only thing I can imagine is that Miss Dunne and her cast mates had an overriding interest in roughing it in Arizona, the site of its on location scenes. La Dunne is just as if not more beautiful when she goes "au naturel" as a gold prospector. She just glows. Jane Crawford, the little girl who plays "Strawberry" has the best role in the movie. The wisdom that she spouts to Irene Dunne's character is priceless. Ralph Bellamy as Dunne's hapless corn seed suitor is largely repeating the part he played opposite Miss Dunne in the much superior "The Awful Truth" five years earlier in 1937. I guess this movie would be okay if you're stuck inside on a rainy day or sick in bed with a bad cold.

Lady in a Jam is a not very successful attempt at a belated screwball comedy, with Irene Dunne as the lead.

Although it has some fun moments, the film is, overall, unbalanced, seeking to transform a useless and wasteful socialite into a peasant, gold researcher in Arizona, under the tutelage of a psychiatrist, who begins full of certainties, in his science and diagnosis, and ends up more confused than the patient herself.

However, there is a lack of a partner worthy of Irene Dunne, for the comedy to work fully. Patrick Knowles may be young and handsome, by the standards of the time, but he lacks the talent and energy to keep up with Dunne's madness.

The presence of Ralph Bellamy, in a supporting role, helps a little, as he plays an interesting character, a romantic cowboy, who sings serenades to his childhood crush, with the sensitivity of a peasant from deep Arizona.

But, although it is nice to watch, it is certainly not a reference work in the genre.