Meet the Stewarts

they don't make 'em this good anymore!perfectly charming 40's comedy with holden in young but top form.supporting cast is excellent.this was one of holden's last films before going to war and ended up the lower half of a double bill...and shouldn't have.

Pretty much a remake of the Bride Walks Out from 1936, right down to the same gags with the money, the furniture, the maid. Mike (William Holden - Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina) marries Candace (Frances Dee - Little Women, Of Human Bondage), and all their problems boil down to surviving on just the husband's income. The bright spots in this movie come from the supporting characters - running gags from the taxi driver (Don Beddoe) and the maid (Margaret Hamilton - the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of OZ!) One difference from the Bride Walks Out is that here, the families of the couple are involved, but in the first version, all the interaction was with their neighbors. Meet the Stewarts is a little more mature; a little darker - grownups talking about real life issues; in The Bride Walks Out, they seemed like fun, young kids who never really took themselves too seriously.

Living within a budget just about sums up the entire plot line of this feeble little domestic comedy, MEET THE STEWARTS, which serves to show WILLIAM HOLDEN and FRANCES DEE as a squabbling young couple who dive into marriage without enough money to finance her extravagant ways.

Dee is pretty but plays a rather flighty housewife, sweet but a bit unreasonable in some of her temperamental outbursts. Holden has the sort of "Smilin' Jim" roles he came to detest in time, but does an acceptable job that reveals an early flair for comedy.

There's strong support from a cast that includes ANNE REVERE, GRANT WITHERS and ANNE GILLIS, but a very unfunny role for MARGARET HAMILTON as an inept maid.

Summing up: Never rises above being more than a formula programmer that gives Holden and Dee a chance to make an early impression.

This came out in 1942. In the early fifties, it could (title and all) have been the first episode of a television show. (That includes William Holden's calling wife Frances Dee "kitten." That's just like in "Father Knows Best," though there it's the title character's daughter's name.) It's a pleasant movie. Holden and Dee are a believable enough couple. It is a familiar story but the plot takes some different routes: She comes from a rich family. He is working class. She wants to try. She indeed does try. (Margaret Hamilton is thrown in, as an inept housekeeper.) The highlight is Anne Revere. What astonishing presence that woman had! She plays Holden's sister, a school principal. She's cold, strong, judgmental, and (of course) in the end kind.

Honestly, I was rather bored with this silly cartoonish script about an untalented wife who couldn't cook or learn to economize on her husband's small salary. I still enjoyed it mainly to see Bill Holden so young and handsome and debonair and funny. However, the last part of the film, near the end, the slapstick comedy became so hilarious that I laughed my head off! That redeemed the film for me. Humor solves a myriad of problems in life. :)

So if you love William Holden definitely add this film to your watch list. As others here have mentioned: later in life he tended to make fun of his early lightweight comedies, but still, it's worthwhile watching him so effortlessly pull his character off in this frothy bubble of a romantic comedy.