La donna senza amore

Enjoyed this great entertaining film with Glenn Ford,(Doug Andrews) who is looking for a job after being in the Army and goes to the personnel department of a large department store and meets the store personnel manager, Millie McGonigle,(Evelyn Keyes). Millie interviews Doug and finds out he would like to be a floor walker in this department store. Doug notices that Millie is very concerned with a young boy she is fond of and wants to adopt, however, she needs a husband and so Doug tries to help her find a husband who likes children and is attracted to Millie. This is a very funny film with all kinds of funny situations between Evelyn Keyes and Glenn Ford. Evelyn Keyes had a nice role in "Gone With The Wind" and after this film Glenn Ford went on to make many great films which brought him to great fame on the silver screen. Enjoy.

"The Mating of Millie" is a light comedy romance and drama set sometime after the end of World War II in California. After serving in the war, Glenn Ford's Doug Andrews can't seem to settle down into a job he likes. Evelyn Keyes' Millie McGonigle is a personnel executive in the huge Bullard's department store where she has worked her way up from a stocking clerk in a short time. These two meet by chance when Doug is fed up with a bus full of people who won't move to the back of the bus to stand, and he parks it and walks away from the job.

Millie lives in a bungalow apartment complex, and knows her neighbors, including a woman who has a little boy who likes Millie, and vice versa. After the woman is run over by a truck, Tommy is put in a homeless children's home awaiting any next of kin or ultimate adoption. That's when the mating of Millie gets into gear as she needs of be married in order to adopt Tommy.

Doug tries to help her by getting her to shed her business-suit persona. As she meets and attracts two very eligible bachelors, wedding bells appear on the horizon. But, without noting any of the rest of the cast, one can guess how this will end. It's a sweet little story, light comedy and enjoyable family film.

Pleasant romantic comedy stars the beautiful and charming Evelyn Keyes as a businesswoman who wants to adopt the son of a recently deceased neighbor. But to do this she needs a husband. Her first choice is Glenn Ford, but he's not the marrying kind. So he agrees to help her find a mate. You can pretty much guess where it's going to go from here but there are some funny and touching moments along the way. Keyes is terrific and we get some early Ford here, showing some of his lighter side. Later on he would become typecast as a gruff serious type in his western and film noir roles. He was excellent in those but it's nice to see some of his range here.

One scene I want to talk about in particular. It's a cute bit where Ford sneaks a peek through Keyes' diary, only to find it's all blank. He then breaks the fourth wall by looking at the camera and saying "nothing ever happened to her." It's a funny scene and a different type of comedy than the rest of the movie, which is more traditional. One has to wonder if they had thrown in more novelties like that if the movie would be more well-remembered today.

Evelyn Keyes plays the title role in The Mating Of Millie who is a very successful career woman with a nice job in the personnel office of a large Los Angeles department store. She occasionally looks after the neighbor's kid Jimmy Hunt in her bungalow complex. But when his mother is killed in a traffic accident and sent to an orphanage like the one Keyes grew up in, her maternal instincts are aroused.

Her problem is that back in those days the authorities would not let her adopt as a single parent so she has to look for a husband. She's got three candidates in mind, an unorthodox bus driver Glenn Ford, an advertising executive neighbor Willard Parker, and the head of the orphanage where Hunt is who is quite taken with her Ron Randell.

The Mating Of Millie is a nice family comedy with a minimum of heart tugging, but enough to remember why you wanted to see this film. The film is really Evelyn's picture and her best scenes are with Jimmy Hunt. Mabel Paige as the landlady in the bungalow court also has a nice role. In fact Ron Randell's such a nice guy as the orphanage head, it makes you wonder why anyone would want to leave.

Nothing terribly special here, but nice entertainment.

After giving Evelyn Keyes the star treatment in JOLSON STORY, her studio failed to promote her in anything but some innocuous follow-up films with the exception of one or two films. This is one of the better ones.

THE MATING OF MILLIE is a frolic that was probably turned down by Rita Hayworth and given to GLENN FORD and EVELYN KEYES. Whatever, it ignites real sparks as a comedy, telling a story about a woman who must find a husband if she wants to adopt a little boy. The screenwriters find a number of amusing situations for Glenn and Evelyn and they make the most of their rather offbeat roles.

It's their flair for comedy that makes the simple plot so enjoyable. WILLARD PARKER is excellent as a bachelor friend who never notices Keyes until she gets some "warm-up" advice from Ford about how to catch a man. Before you know it, he's on her doorstep asking to borrow a cup of sugar.

RON RANDELL is the head of an orphanage who also has designs on Keyes but is a realist about the situation. The predictable happy ending is in sight long before it actually happens, but it's given a charming treatment. Movie buffs will recognize MABEL PAIGE as Keyes' friendly elderly neighbor.

As predictable as it is, it's still a charmer.