La sposa rubata

I really like this movie. It is just one of those that is fun to watch . . . and re-watch.

Ronald Reagan and Jack Carson are hilarious together. They both are on the edge of a nervous breakdown throughout the story because of all of the trouble they've gotten themselves into. One lie leads to another and their troubles get bigger and bigger.

I think that Patricia Neal does a good job in this role. I think that she was a great actress but I'm not sure that this was the best role for her. The movie was originally planned for Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan together but when the Reagans split up, the part of Mary was given to Patricia Neal.

When I come across people who have not seen any of Ronald Reagan's movies, I think of this one. He does a great job with this comedy.

I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as I do.

Ronald Reagan was usually not at his best in comedy, but here he was excellent, possibly with help from director David Butler.

Some people have complained of Patricia Neal's performance, saying she didn't fit, but she was supposed to be the daughter of a rich couple and I thought she was perfect. In fact, I liked her better as Mary than as any other character I've seen.

Jack Carson could have been toned down a little; on the other hand, Wayne Morris gave one of his best performances, with just the right shading.

Oh, and Paul Harvey (NOT the radio announcer), as the general, was utterly charming, one of his best roles and performances out of hundreds. Interestingly, one of his first movie roles was as a colonel.

The whole cast, in fact, was great.

The story was cute, and there were some really funny moments, although I was fidgeting occasionally when it seemed on-screen delays were about to get everybody caught and in worse trouble.

That problem came from the stage origin. It didn't work perfectly in this film adaptation, but, heck, how much in life is perfect? All in all, "John Loves Mary" is a very good movie, with wonderful players in a generally enjoyable script. I recommend it.

John Loves Mary was a popular post World War II Broadway hit that ran for 423 performances written by Norman Krasna. Movies and plays about returning servicemen from World War II were glutting the market at this time. Everything from The Best Years Of Our Lives to Buck Privates Come Home to run the gamut from the serious to the funny.

On Broadway the cast included William Prince, Nina Foch, Tom Ewell, and Lyle Bettger in the roles that Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson, and Wayne Morris repeated on screen. The one that really doesn't compute is Lyle Bettger who played such a lovely variety of psychos on the screen. I just can't see him doing comedy or it must have been quite different his interpretation of the blowhard ex-officer that Wayne Morris was. Actually all the stage cast members did have some substantial screen careers.

Reagan is the John in the film who is coming home to his fiancé Mary played by Patricia Neal in her screen debut. He did real well for himself she being the daughter of US Senator Edward Arnold and Katharine Alexander with a lovely Park Avenue apartment. But it turns out that there's a slight hitch in the wedding plans.

What a guy won't do for a friend, especially one who saved his life during the war. Jack Carson who got his discharge earlier from Uncle Sam is pining over the British girl he left behind. Well Reagan knowing the problem that folks were having coming to America with immigration hurdles, marries Virginia Field and gets over as the bride of a GI. The idea being that they'd take a quick trip to Reno and then Jack Carson can marry her.

All that's needed is a ruse to get Reagan out to Nevada without Neal. And that's what the rest of John Loves Mary is about. It all resolves itself in an interesting way showing none of these people taking those sacred vows of marriage all that seriously.

John Loves Mary is a pleasant if dated comedy. But it's ironic as all heck that with people having real immigration problems and looking to the USA as a beacon of freedom, I think the joke would fall flat with them. Ditto with gay people who are now trying to get the right to marry seeing these people shifting partners like shooters switching off dice in a crap game.

Anyway I'm sure Norman Krasna who wrote this and Warner Brothers who brought it to the screen weren't thinking that deeply here.

Patricia Neal in her screen debut is "Mary" and she loves "John," played by Ronald Reagan in this lightweight comedy, "John Loves Mary." She expects him home from service any day and wants the moment when he sees her to be just right, with "Someone to Watch Over Me" playing. But things are never that easy. Not with fellow serviceman Jack Carson involved. Jack did save his life once. Therefore, Ronnie felt indebted to him. But an attempt to help Jack out with his love life backfires on Ronald and he and Patricia have to wait to get married due to him being married to Jack's foreign girlfriend to bring her into the country. But it seems that upon meeting Jack, he learns that, despite the fact that Jack couldn't live without her, he had married someone else since then. What a pickle! Ronnie is trying to keep all this from Patricia and her politician father, played Edward Arnold. I saw this almost twenty years ago and I thought I had memories of liking it. But upon seeing it recently, I found this to be too stagy, due to its play origins, too silly, and a little annoying at times. One would probably like this for the people in it, but the situations feel forced to me and I really didn't find it to be that funny. In fact, afterwards I felt that it wasted the stars and it was all a to-do over nothing, despite the affable dispositions of Ronnie and company.

This was Patricia Neal's film debut, and in the first fifteen minutes I had to wonder if somebody was going to haul out the vaudeville cane, get her by the neck, and take her offstage. She was completely over the top. But then she gets more believable and settles down. On the surface it is light romantic fluff - Mary (Neal) is waiting for her soldier, John (Ronald Reagan), to come home from war. If you find the first fifteen minutes taxing, stick around. It gets much better.

Very quickly this plot becomes what was intended to be a good deed that turns into a tangle of problems. You see, John ran into his war pal Fred's (Jack Carson's) best girl in England. They would have been married, but Fred could never find her after the war and she was presumed dead. The only way that John could figure to get Fred's best girl -Lilly - into the US was to marry her himself, bring her to the US, get a quickie Reno divorce, and then Fred and Lilly can be married. The problem is, John never bothered to run this idea by anybody else - specifically his fiancee, Mary, and even Fred himself! Very quickly John finds his good deed overcome by events. Let's just say that in Fred's case he made peace with the fact that Lilly was dead and "life goes on". Specifically life is going on when John returns with Fred's wife in labor at the hospital. Plus Mary's parents - her dad is a Senator (Edward Arnold) - want John and Mary to be married in a week!

How will this all work out? Watch and find out. Ronald Reagan just fills the screen with that beaming smile of his. Jack Carson was always great as the guy who would like to be the villain but is just not smart enough to be anything but a patsy. Here though, he is just the nervous victim of circumstance. There are lots of twists and turns in this one and there isn't a boring moment in it. Highly recommended and a great surprise.