Affectionately Yours

Another reviewer used the word "trite" to characterize the plot of this film. Amen to that! As for the film as a whole? How about lame? Really lame!

Since this was a 1940s Warner Brothers production featuring several of that studio's stalwart players, I had high hopes when I saw it for the first, and almost certainly ONLY, time. But, really, this is a silly story that is hardly ever funny and simply makes everyone involved look foolish. (Butterfly McQueen absolutely sobs her way through this movie. Makes you wish someone had taken her apron and gagged her with it!)

I love the WB product of the 1940s, but this is really a let down. Don't expect anything like "Christmas in Connecticut"!

Rickey Mayberry (Dennis Morgan) is a womanizing globetrotting reporter. He tells fellow journalist Irene Malcolm (Rita Hayworth) that he would marry her if not for his marriage to Sue (Merle Oberon). It's his usual line. He gets a cablegram that his wife is seeking a divorce. He intends to win her back by any means necessary although she intends to remarry to Owen Wright (Ralph Bellamy).

This needs to start with Rickey and Sue together so that they can build some chemistry. This couple has limited rooting interest. Then there is his womanizing ways. It may be a sign of the times, but it doesn't build any more rooting interest in this coupling. In fact, he has more chemistry with Rita Hayworth. She is the best of this entire movie. I would really consider reworking the premise and the cast in general.

Dennis Morgan, Merle Oberon, Rita Hayworth, and Ralph Bellamy are "Affectionately Yours" in this 1941 comedy. Morgan is a newspaper reporter who travels constantly.

His current amour is Malcolm (Hayworth), and he gives her the same story he's given all of them - his wife (Oberon) won't divorce him.

However, he receives a telegram stating that she has, and he panics. He rushes home to New York, with Malcolm right behind him, and tries to woo her back. She's planning to marry Mr. Wright (Bellamy), who is more than disturbed by the fact that she still seems interested in her husband.

This is a fairly trite comedy with some very funny slapstick and, of course, two of the screen's most beautiful women, Oberon and Hayworth.

This film was made just before Hayworth broke through into big stardom, and she's delicious. She has the best role in the film. It always amuses me to see her so vivacious and talkative on screen.

According to one of her biographers, when the kids from the old neighborhood saw her on screen for the first time, they were shocked at how much she was talking. She never talked as a young girl.

Though she didn't really like movie stardom, the screen was where she could let herself go and be someone else. Morgan is attractive and just right as the errant husband.

Bellamy is in his usual role as the man who doesn't get the girl, and he does beleaguered very well.

Oberon lends sophistication and class to the film. Someone commented here that she looked plump. I don't know what they're talking about.

This is a good movie to see for the stars. The story isn't much.

In the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Ralph Bellamy had a peculiar niche in films. He was cast as the boyfriend who will lose the leading lady by the end of the film in approximately 48230 films (give or take). Again and again, you KNOW by the end of the movie he'll be left alone, so when I saw him dating Dennis Morgan's ex-wife (Merle Oberon) in this movie, I knew he'd be a miserable loser eventually!

The film begins with Morgan learning that his wife's divorce is final and he connives to get her back--though she's now with Bellamy(!) of all people! So, he's off to get her...and pretty Rita Hayworth is following, as she wants him and is thrilled that he's now divorced. While all of this is reasonably enjoyable, I couldn't help thinking that I've seen similar films many times--and often the other films were a bit better. After all, while Moran and Oberon were fine, the likes of Cary Grant, Irene Dunne or Rosalind Russell simply were better. My advice is see "The Awful Truth", "His Girl Friday"

or "My Favorite Wife" instead. The plots are rather similar (and some even feature Bellamy as the sap) and are just better--better written, acted and directed.

The verdict--a good film but nothing especially new.

This is a late and modest entry into the screwball comedy genre. As such, all the performers are frenetic, histrionic, and act in broad, bold strokes. Performers falling into water is a running joke. There is no dry humor in this film. Unfortunately, no good lines either; it has a script of shtick patched together from older and better comedies.

But the other woman here acts as an intelligent person and has a natural manner. Since it is Rita Hayworth herself, she is naturally beautiful. It suggests a script writers dilemma: other woman has to be less desirable than the female lead, but they have to be desirable enough for the male lead to be attracted by them. In this movie, Rita Hayworth is so much more appealing in every way than Merle Oberon that it renders the plot silly.

The racial stereotypes are prominent here, with Hattie MacDanial and Butter McQueen doing routines they could have done in their sleep. Had they had sharp,incisive funny lines, we might have had a guilty laugh or two from these offensive stereotypes. As they were simply stereotypes to laugh at, it is now only offensive.