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A pilot falls in love with a woman he believes is heading cross country to become a maid, little suspecting that she's actually a princess.

Director: Norman Krasna Writer: Norman Krasna (original screenplay) Stars: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn

Firstly, I have to comment that Olivia de Havilland looks absolutely beautiful in this movie. De Havilland really made this film shine! Norman Krasna wrote a delightful script that is played to the hilt by Olivia de Havilland ! Princess O'Rourke is a warm and heartfelt romantic comedy, a cute reversal of the Cinderella story with slight elements of slapstick, a good dose of wit, and some pretty cheeky and suggestive humor for 1943. The film's director, Norman Krasna, won an Academy Award for his clever screenplay. Princess marks Krasna's debut as a director . This is one of my favorite de Havilland films it is an under rated Romantic Comedy for sure. This is a hidden gem !

Princess O'Rourke isn't a well-known film , but it certainly has its charm. 8/10.

Seeing Princess O'Rourke last night on TCM, it was interesting to learn that interiors at the White House were shot at the real location. And while the current president was occupied by something called World War II, he found time to have his well known Scot's terrier Fala make a guest appearance.

That is the real Fala you see playing message courier between Princess Olivia DeHavilland and the pilot from Brooklyn, Robert Cummings. She's a princess from some unnamed European country that is currently occupied by some jackbooted uninvited guests. Most of the royalty in exile settled in the United Kingdom during war time, but some actually did make it here. In fact Olivia's father the king is in London as the story goes.

And this is a Cinderella story in reverse with the boy from Brooklyn, meeting, wooing and winning a princess. Cummings is an airline pilot scheduled to go in the Army Air Corps who meets princess DeHavilland on a flight that gets canceled back to New York. A slight overdose of sleeping pills leaves her in his unwanted hands. The unwanted part changes soon enough as it does in all films of this type.

The ironic thing is while some royalty did make it back to their countries, a lot were dispossessed permanently by those other totalitarian occupiers from the East after World War II. They didn't exactly live in the diminished circumstances that Olivia was heading for. Some of Charles Coburn's concerns as her uncle are quite real.

Princess O'Rourke is a charming comedy though dated by its topical wartime references. Look also for nice performances by Jack Carson as Cummings's co-pilot and Jane Wyman as Carson's girl friend.

Yes, it's a wartime movie, with some fairly subtle propaganda thrown in. Yes, it's a formula romance. Well, I'm afraid I love formula romances. And I guess I can even respect propaganda when it's done with panache and sincerity.

Norman Krasna's screenplay is the real star. Watching the film I was constantly amazed at how the dialog sparkled, how the situations never worked out in quite the way I expected, how the characters always seemed just a little warmer and more human than they might have in many similar films of this era.

The cast is excellent as well, consisting entirely of Hollywood stalwarts, every one of them at their most endearing. Jack Carson, Charles Coburn and Jane Wyman are all great, of course. But Olivia De Havilland is also perfectly cast, lovable on one hand, regal on the other... yet without that slightly simpering quality that made her less likable in, say, The Adventures of Robin Hood, or Gone With the Wind. Robert Cummings was a fine comedic actor who is not well-remembered today, perhaps because he was less multidimensional than someone like James Stewart; but he's used to excellent advantage here. He's not just portraying the perfect everyman Yank; he IS that (perhaps mythical) person, the Guy From Brooklyn. And, yes, the perfect wartime Yank, who's just got to join up and be in "the biggest fight of all time, and the most important." Just as Bogart had to go be a hero at the end of Casablanca. These wartime films earn much of their charm by being unashamedly part of their times.

But ultimately, it's the little touches that raise this film far above the ordinary. The extended gag with the multiple sleeping pills; the silly little bits with the president's dog... These don't distract from the warmth of the film, they add to it.

Perhaps we undervalue a film like Princess O'Rourke simply because the material and the style are so familiar. We need to step back and admire the Hollywood dream-factory at its finest, working to a certain format, yet also bringing together the talented individuals who could make that format sing.

I'll take a wonderfully-executed "formula" film like Princess O'Rourke any day, over self-consciously brilliant films that forget the basics of how to entertain.

Olivia de Havilland shows once again that she can play a quiet, timid young lady as she had done 4 years earlier in the epic "Gone With the Wind."

Cast opposite a wonderful Robert Cummings, as Eddie O'Rourke, the two provide an absolute great chemistry between them in this wonderful film.

My only surprise here is that Gladys Cooper, as a secretary, has so little to do here.

As always, Charles Coburn is terrific, especially by showing his comic and dramatic abilities in films. The scene where he tells Eddie to get out is just great.

The picture just proves over and over that wealth and status can't bring you happiness.

The odd-ball meeting between the Princess and Eddie provides for so much fun here. Rounding out the cast is Jane Wyman and Jack Carson, as the married friends of Eddie.

The scene where Mary (Olivia) is willing to do anything for the war effort was quite humorous. She is better than any princess, the woman is no snob. Eddie shows his mettle when he refuses to give up his American citizenship by marrying a foreign princess. He wishes to do his patriotic duty, the great theme for American films during World War 11.

Princess O'Rourke does not try to be amusing or clever, but instead it deftly combines funny situations with a sort of real-life seriousness. A viewer may get the impression that this is really how a princess (Olivia de Havilland) would behave if faced with the predicament of falling for a commoner in another country-- if, in fact, it would happen at all.

Yet there is something believable about this hokum, because the film possesses a calmness and dignity, in large part due to the presence of Miss de Havilland. Robert Cummings as the leading man is both romantic and comic; while Charles Coburn and Jane Wyman deliver strong supporting performances.

The film's strongest asset, though, is the writing. The basic premise seems to cover all sorts of angles and suggests that love and politics intersect but do not necessarily mix. The story moves forward with ease, and a highlight of the proceedings is the friendship that develops between de Havilland and Wyman.