Cinderella Jones

This is a very, very contrived film with a very weak story idea. Considering what great films Warner Brothers usually made, the plot is amazingly poor. It's not surprising, then, that the studio held this film for a long time before it was released--as apparently they, too, knew it was a seriously flawed film.

The film begins with some radio show that is looking for lost people--and in this case it's the missing heir to a $10,000,000 fortune. When Judy Jones (Joan Leslie) is located, she learns that the money isn't hers yet--she must be married by Saturday to a man of genius IQ or the money is to be given to a museum. The problem is that the only guy who might marry her is a bit of a clod--and certainly NOT a genius (Robert Alda). So, Judy decides the best place to find a smart guy is the local technical college and she manages to charm her way into be admitted to school--even though it's an all-male campus and Jones is a complete idiot (I'm talking almost a Gracie Allen-level idiot!). Will this moron get a guy by the deadline...and will the audience even care? Considering that the leading lady is annoying, dumb and pretty self-centered, I sure didn't.

This film proves that even with wonderful character actors like Cuddles Sakall, Ruth Donnelly and Edward Everett Horton you CAN make a bad film. Unlikable characters, a contrived plot, bad writing and unnecessary singing make this a real dud.

Maybe it's just me, but is no one else troubled by the apparent ability of just about everyone in this movie to change who they love and whom they want to marry almost at will. No concept of everlasting love troubles the writer and certainly will not trouble any ensuing marriage that would come from this movie. I just found it disappointing. Joan Leslie is good enough, but haven't we come too far (even by 1946) than to think it's funny that women are stupid. And just too idiotically stupid to continue living. Unlike other commentators I did not think the bubbles from the mouth bit funny at all, I just thought it dumb. Which pretty well sums up the movie for me.

Cut-rate romantic shenanigans from Warner Bros. and director Busby Berkeley features Joan Leslie as a ditsy band singer who stands to inherit $10,000,000 from a deceased relative--provided she marries a man with a high I.Q. under the deadline. Playing the kind of kooky girl who mistakes a bar of soap for cheese and thinks the 17th President of the United States was named Abraham Jefferson, Leslie's wide-eyed, open-mouthed innocent-act gets a strenuous workout here (she's nearly impossible to take). Songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn aren't enough to save the picture, which shoehorns in greedy lawyers, hep-cat professors, and a penniless pianist who wants to "live on love". Poor in all respects, the film sat on the shelf for two years before Warners finally released it. They shouldn't have bothered. NO STARS from ****

This was one of the more fun "B" movies I have seen recently. I am a movie collector who enjoys clean light comedies, and enjoyed this. It stars S.Z. Sakall, so naturally it doesn't try to cover the meaning of life, or contain any heavy-handed social commentary. My kind of movie!!

It has a highly unlikely story line with enough laughs along the way to make it enjoyable. Whether it is a sight gag, plot absurdities, the characters breaking out in song, or "inside" jokes about the actors themselves, it is obvious that everyone involved was having fun.

Joan Leslie plays a naive good girl who works odd jobs, and Robert Alda is a band leader.

Hungarian character actor S.Z Sakall plays a Hungarian professor from Budapest (go figure).

Joan Leslie can inherit ten million dollars if she gets married. But it has to happen very soon, or else the inheritance is off. The movie is spent with Sakall, three young single guys (Alda as band leader, a young professor, and a stalker), and some very eager inheritance lawyers who try to marry off Leslie.

After we are introduced to the characters, Sakall is shown walking around outside and chattering about his old science laboratory and how he wants a new one. Then he remembers that he accidentally left dynamite on the stove in his lab, and seconds later we hear it blow up in the distance. "No new laboratory, now no old laboratory."

He ends up in jail twice in the movie, but not for accidentally blowing up his lab.

A memorable line: (Sakall is on the stand in court):

"For how long have you known the ladies in question?"

"Question, what's question??"

"You DO understand the English language..."

"Yes I understand. I talk English perfect. A couple of years ago I had an accent, but I lose it."

Will Leslie be able to make up her mind on which guy to marry before the clock runs out? Will some lucky guy end up with Leslie? Will Sakall get his funding for a new science lab? Will the inheritance lawyers strike it rich? Watch it to find out!

Band singer and gunshell loader Joan Leslie is surprised to learn that she has inherited ten million dollars. She must be wed by a certain date to inherit. She was going to marry bandleader Robert Alda, but that money implies an obligation. She wants to marry a genius. So she enrols in an all-male college, where she and chemistry professor William Prince irritate each other.

It was shot and finished by the beginning of 1944, which explains the ending, with an army battalion singing "You Never Know Where You're Going" without the help of Mel Blanc. It's one of those kitchen sink musical comedies, with a large supporting cast including S. Z. Sakall, Edward Everett Horton, Julie Bishop, Hobart Cavanaugh.... well, anyone who could play comedy, three songs by Jules Styne and Sammy Kay, and plenty of comic skits disguised as advancing the plot until the next setback. With a script that looks like it just grew like Topsy, it's quite funny at any given moment, even if the ending is.... well, where did the army get that wedding cake?