Madame veut un bébé

Love classic film and there are many great to classic romantic comedy. Fred MacMurray was a very watchable actor and showed charm and great comic timing more than once. Marlene Dietrich was always luminous on screen, the camera clearly loving her, and always a magnetic presence, especially in her films with Josef Von Sternberg.

Both MacMurray and Dietrich did better than 'The Lady is Willing' in their long and distinguished careers. More the film themselves than their performances, which actually come off well with plenty of the assets that were particularly appealing. 'The Lady is Willing' is still a decent film with a lot to love. It is also an uneven film that loses its way. Can definitely see why some remember it fondly, why some like it but have reservations and why it doesn't work for others.

'The Lady is Willing' is one of those films that starts off very well. It is mostly very successful in the comedic and romantic elements. While silly in spots, the comedy was sophisticated, witty and humorous. The romantic element sparkled and charmed and the script is snappy.

It looks great too, with it being beautifully shot and the production and costume design are elegant sophistication personified. The direction is glossy and keeps things moving, while not always being inspired. The music fits decently enough and serves its purpose. MacMurray is amusing and charming in a role that fits him like a perfectly fitted glove and Dietrich is as ever luminous and makes a potentially bothersome character likeable. They play off each other well while appealing as a couple. Aline MacMahon and Stanley Ridges sparkle in support, MacMahon particularly.

With this amount of promise, it is a shame that 'The Lady is Willing' wasn't better. It is let down by the more dramatic elements and latter parts of the film. The melodramatic change of tone just jars uneasily, the melodrama coming over as overwrought soap-opera, while the ending is more maudlin than it is touching and the pace loses lustre.

On the most part, the story is flimsy, and that's an understatement, parts being truly dumb and at times bizarre, giving an air of contrivance. The rest of the supporting cast are competent but don't stand out enough.

Summarising, uneven but decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Engaging comedy with Fred and Marlene well matched and looking glamorous and gorgeous. As was her usual state Marlene is gowned in one eye popping creation after another with some extraordinary hats. She's loaded with gossamer charm as an actress who longs for motherhood and is suddenly presented with answered prayers. Endearing in her befuddlement of the simplest basics of children, including finding out whether the baby she's taken under her wing is a boy or a girl!, she still comes across as a sincerely sweet and loving person. Fred is all gruff exterior at first but his innate joviality soon shows through. The picture takes an unnecessary detour into melodrama towards the end but snaps out of it for a proper ending. A cute and frothy film with Aline MacMahon contributing a fun performance as Marlene's right hand woman.

Whatever faults THE LADY IS WILLING has can be traced immediately to the script. Despite this, Mitchel Leisen's direction guides MARLENE DIETRICH and FRED MacMURRAY through their paces and gets some very good performances from both of them. Marlene, in particular, is surprisingly effective playing a naive, bossy, and very "dumb" Broadway actress who casually walks off with a baby simply because it's cute and she can afford to take care of it.

Complications arise, of course, when it's discovered that she's the woman in the screwy hat who took the child away from the scene of an accident. MacMurray is the handsome doctor she calls when she needs help in supervising the child and from then on the story veers between comedy, romance and even drama toward the end.

Dietrich is lovingly photographed, perfectly lit by an astute cameraman no matter what the situation is and glamorously gowned throughout. MacMurray is an old hand at screwball comedy and is thoroughly adept at handling his bumbling chores with his usual expertise.

A couple of good-natured twins were used for all of the baby's scenes and Dietrich seems to really care about how she interacts with the infant. It's an unusual role for her and she demonstrates an ability to toss off screwball dialog with the best of them.

This sort of fluff is given above average handling by Leisen and his stars, although the material itself is decidedly below par screwball comedy that turns maudlin toward the end.

"The Lady is Willing" is a very good comedy, drama and love story that pairs two fine actors with a good supporting cast. The plot is built around a couple of far-fetched premises, but with a well-crafted screenplay. Marlene Dietrich is Broadway star Liza Madden who one day walks into her apartment suite with a baby. Fred MacMurray is Dr. Corey McBain, an obstetrician who's called in to look at her baby. When baby Joanna turns out to be a boy, whom Liza later names Corey, the comedy is in full swing.

This isn't a romance in the usual sense, but a slowly developing love story of a woman for a baby, then a man, and man for a woman and a baby. Humor fills the first three-fourths, with the drama and love clinching the end. There are lots or rabbits here as well - but not the full 365,422 that Dr. McBain needs to prove his research. This is the only full comedy that Dietrich ever made, let alone starred in. Her funny lines are very good, but the most priceless of the humor is in her facial expressions after she has committed some foible that has been noted by someone else.

Dietrich plays a strong-willed, big name actress who has a big heart. She makes tons of money but gives much of it away to many people whom she calls "pensioners," but whom her secretary and business manager call leeches. She is also making payments for several years of back taxes owed to the IRS. So, one might wonder about her secretary and business manager who have been with her for many years.

But, that's part of the comedy, with Aline MacMahon as Liza's secretary, Buddy, and Stanley Ridges as her business manager and agent, Kenneth Hanline. They are sources of much of the humor. This isn't a rollicking funny film throughout. It's loaded with humor in the first half which then segues to a warm-hearted comedy and slowly emerging love story.

MacMurray gives in to Liza's marriage business arrangement so that he can start his research for a cure of pneumonia. It lets him stop his private practice and start raising and testing 365,422 rabbits. McBain has been married once before, and that comes into the film in a way that transitions it from comedy to drama. The ending is quite good with a lesson in love and trust.

The script is very good with loads of good dialog. Here are some favorite lines.

Buddy, "Whose little act of God is this you've swiped?" Liza Madden, "Isn't she wonderful?"

Buddy, "Oh, stop schmoozing over that kid and tell us where you got it." Liza, "I took her." Buddy, "Ken!" Kenneth Hanline, "You mean you kidnapped here?" Liza, "Oh, Ken, you've got an obscene mind - and you're a bad influence."

Liza Madden, "This poor little thing must be catching something from Ken. Go sanitize yourself, Ken. With all that money you handle and everything."

Liza Madden, on the telephone, "Doctor, this is Elizabeth Madden. Would you rush right over here and take a look at my baby?... Symptoms? Doctor, if I could recognize symptoms, I would be a doctor not an actress.... What age?...About two."

Dr. Corey McBain, "I was called her to examine a two-year-old child." Liza Madden, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Here she is. My own precious darling Joanna." Dr. McBain, "This? This is an infant of about 8 or 9 months." Liza, "Oh, yes, yes, that was a slight mistake about the age. She's so smart that I always think of her as being much older."

Dr. McBain, "Miss Madden, might I suggest that you choose a different name for, uh, Joanna. She, uh, happens to be a male." Liza, "What? A boy? But that can't be. He, I mean, she, I mean, he was wearing all pink. He just can't be a boy. Everybody knows that girls wear pink and boys wear blue - don't you know that?" Dr. McBain, "Miss Madden, many years ago, medical science discovered a much better way of segregating boys and girls than by the color of their clothing."

Liza Madden, "A boy's so much less likely to get into trouble than a girl."

Liza Madden, "Don't you like any of them, darling? He just sits there." Buddy, "I remember an audience in Cedar Rapids once that behaved the same way."

Ken Hanline, "Call him catastrophe." Liza Madden, "Oh no, that's much too long."

Detective Sgt. Barnes, "Murphy here and the other witnesses say this lady was wearing the screwiest had they'd ever seen." Buddy, laughing almost hysterically, "That's hardly a distinguishing characteristic these days." Sgt. Barnes, "So, we come here and we ask the bellboys what lady wears the screwiest hats and every one of 'em says, 'Miss Madden.'" Liza Madden, "Well, the bellboys. What do they know about hats anyway?"

Detective Sgt. Barnes, "So, we thought you wouldn't mind if we looked around, just to see if we could sort of find a baby that perhaps you hadn't noticed."

Liza Madden, "Frankly, Mrs. Cummings, don't you think it's rather ridiculous - suspecting me of kidnapping?" Mrs. Cummings, "On the contrary. We have many similar cases. It happens every day. Generally to women whose lives have been so selfish that they've never experienced the normal feelings of love and self-sacrifice."

Buddy, "Are you English?" Dr. Corey McBain, "No, Nebraska. Why?" Buddy, "You keep understating everything."

Dr. Corey McBain, "I wanted something too, once - something I couldn't have". Liza Madden, "A baby?" Dr. McBain, "No, not a baby - rabbits. Three hundred and sixty-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-two rabbits."

Dr. Corey McBain, "And 17 generations of rabbits is 365,422 rabbits."

Liza Madden, "Nobody who likes rabbits could be very vicious." Dr. Corey McBain, "Oh, I'm not, but... well, you just don't marry people on the same day you examine their babies."

Part of the premise of The Lady Is Willing is that the famous can get away with anything. Picture if you will yourself who while the police are investigating reports of a baby abandoned in a boardinghouse, just up and taking the infant. That would probably land you in jail for a stretch. But for Marlene Dietrich, famous musical comedy star, everyone is just forgiving as all heck and let's her keep the little tyke.

Everyone except the IRS who is insistence that she be solvent. Unmarried or not doesn't seem to be the issue. She owes a lot in income tax. So she persuades pediatrician Fred MacMurray to marry her. That would certainly save on doctor bills.

As for Fred who wouldn't want to marry Marlene? But when they enlarge their living quarters it's for cages for rabbits. MacMurray is doing research and needs them for experiments. He's also got an ex-wife sniffing around in the person of Arline Judge. She's more trouble than the rabbits.

The Lady Is Willing just will never be ranked as one of the 10 best for either Fred or Marlene. It makes so little use of MacMurray's comic talents which I find very strange. As for Marlene, there are times in the film when she comes across more like Doris Day.

Best in the film might possibly Marlene's girl Friday Aline McMahon. She has the film's best lines.

But fans of Fred and Marlene should like it well enough.