Obliging Young Lady

It's painfully obvious that OBLIGING YOUNG LADY is about a bratty girl who isn't the least bit obliging. Nor do the adults around her behave with any more common sense throughout the running time of this weak screwball comedy.

JOAN CARROLL gets top billing as the bratty girl given to putting tacks on chairs for sheer delight. EDMOND O'BRIEN proves that comedy was not his forte; EVE ARDEN is totally wasted as a newspaper woman; RUTH WARRICK is pretty but can do nothing much with a bland role as a lawyer who takes the girl to a lodge in the country while the parents are involved in a custody battle.

The good supporting cast includes GEORGE CLEVELAND, CHARLES LANE, FORTUNIO BONANOVA and FRANKLIN PANGBORN. Pangborn is the only bright note in the comedy, arriving at the lodge with his bird group and providing some genuinely amusing comic moments with their bird calls.

RKO was obviously hoping to provide a star vehicle for child actress JOAN CARROLL but the character she plays is obnoxious from scene one and the script never gives her an opportunity to be anything but annoying.

Bad script defeats everyone and results in a strained and very foolish comedy in which everyone is guilty of boorish behavior.

This film had great potential, however, the screenplay left a lot to be desired. Young Miss Carroll is actually the better performer of all the folks who appear in it. Franklin Panghorn isn't that bad either. After these two forget it, which is a ashame. Eve Arden is wasted, such a talent deserved more than the tripe she was given in this one. Edmund O'Brian makes one ill just watching him handle his lines. I cannot bear to discuss the other parts. Joan Carroll had a lot of potential, but she like Ann Carter and Sharyn Moffet never were consistent child performers thanks to much of the inane scripts they were given. Carroll was the most talented of the three RKO child Starlets, but Moffet at least had a few pictures that were all her own. Obliging Young Lady shows Carroll was star material, this just wasn't a vehicle in which she was able to shine, still whatever redeeming value it has is carried by her.

This second feature from 1942, Obliging Young Lady, stars Ruth Warrick, Joan Carroll, and Edmund O'Brien.

Linda Norton (Warrick) takes a child (Carroll) involved in a custody case to a resort to keep the child hidden from reporters. Her nemesis, Red Reddy (O'Brien) is at the same resort. He saw her at another train station, fell for her, kissed her, and was slapped. She wants nothing to do with him.

The whole thing turns into a big mess, with Linda's boyfriend arriving, with Linda and Red posing as Bridget's parents. A private detective shows up, as well as a reporter (Eve Arden) who knows Red. And there's a bird lovers' convention. The participants are under the impression that Red is well- traveled and can give them information.

Cute and fast-moving, with a nice cast that also includes Franklin Pangborn and Charles Lane, who died in 2007, at the age of 92, and worked until he was 80.

Ruth Warrick was a pretty leading lady in the style of Rosalind Russell and does well here, but her big fame came years later as Phoebe Tyler in All My Children. Joan Carroll is very good - she's not a cloying, overly sweet child, nor is she obnoxious. O'Brien is up to the comedy, though he would be known later for film noir.

All in all, pleasant.

From the opening of this minor screwball comedy from RKO, the silly tone is set for an enjoyable romp.

Joan Carroll plays a girl abandoned by her silly squabbling parents to the lawyer's secretary--Ruth Warrick, who is being chased by a crazy reporter--Edmond O'Brien. They all end up at Lake Mohawk in the off season.

The opening motif of repeating Heinie Manusch to the sounds of the clattering train wheels is very funny and starts the film off on a perfect note. Manusch was a famous baseball player. Warrick has a stuffy boy friend (Robert Smith) and the voracious lady reporter (Eve Arden) is after the story of the little girl.

At the lodge, Carroll and Warrick pose as sisters until O'Brien shows up and says he's the kid's father. The hotel staff gets intrigued especially when Smith shows up and says he "Mama's" boy friend.

Lots of fun and made funnier my a sterling supporting cast: George Cleveland, Ceorge Chandler, Almira Sessions and Fortunio Bonanova are the hotel staff. Charles Lane is the detective. Luis Alberni is the deranged composer. Franklin Pangborn heads the birding party. Marjorie Gateston and John Miljan are the parents. Pierre Watkin is the lawyer. Andrew Tombes is the train conductor. George Watts is the judge who wants chicken.

Warrick and O'Brien are attractive leads. Carroll isn't too sticky and is funny as she puts tacks on everyone's chairs.

and always remember: HEINIE MANUSCH!

Cute little antic comedy from very early in Edmond O'Brien's career. If you only know him from his later character work you'll be surprised how lean and attractive he is here. He also shows himself adept at the knockabout comedy the script calls for.

Joan Carroll, more well known as Agnes Smith in Meet Me in St. Louis and Patsy the troubled young girl in The Bells of St. Mary's, is winsome as the mischievous child who causes the plot to be set in motion. Ruth Warrick, famous from years as Phoebe Tyler in All My Children, is pretty and properly exasperated as the object of O'Brien's ardor.

Filmed at a breakneck pace and stocked with a bunch of reliable character actors, chief among them the great Eve Arden, this is a breezy minor comedy that is more enjoyable than you'd expect from a quickie feature obviously meant for the lower half of a double bill.