John Loves Mary

I don't know who, if anyone, will ever read my review, but if you're reading this you must be a big fan of someone here. Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal . . . Irving Bacon, Edward Arnold. For me, it's Jack Carson: Master of the Double Take. Bob Hope was a much bigger star for certain, but Jack Carson was funnier with those big, over done, expressive, double takes and Bob is believed to have taken Carson's cue. Anyway, in "John Loves Mary", everyone follows Carson and acts over the top. Even Reagan, who usually can't even act surprised, is good here. Easily my favorite Reagan movie. Director David Butler, another favorite of mine, winds up the cast and makes the over acting an important part of the film. The over acting fits, and allows Jack Carson to be Jack Carson. Carson even reacts with his hair in this one! I'm not kidding! Great cast, and when a character acting great like Irving Bacon shows up in a small role, it's 1940s Hollywood Heaven! Best verbal exchange: Lilly: "Tell me, what's it like west of New Jersey?" Edward Arnold as US Senetor McKinley: "REPUBLICAN!!" Hey, if you really love the film AND read this, please drop me a note. "Gone with the Wind" and "Citizen Kane" are great, but there's some great "little movies" that beg to be seen too. Three viewings to date and counting.

Even at a much younger age, PATRICIA NEAL looked too smart, strong-willed and intelligent to play flighty feminine leads in the kind of wacky romantic comedies the Warner studio was used to churning out. She looks almost ill at ease in a role which calls for a bright-eyed ingenue like Joan Leslie who would have been ideal for this sort of thing.

But the rest of the cast has a high time playing the hi-jinks of a script based on Norman Krasna's Broadway play. Jack Carson is especially able as the sort of lovable dumb guy (with those great double takes that he specialized in) caught up in a situation involving a British woman (Virginia Field) who is supposed to be coming to the states to marry him. When the arrangements are delayed, he meets and marries someone else without telling her. She finally makes it to the states and he and pal Ronald Reagan get caught up in a series of lies that complicate Reagan's relationship with fiance Patricia Neal.

Of course, all of the misunderstandings could have been cleared up if someone just told the truth--but then there would be no picture.

Edward Arnold as a pompous senator (was there any other kind?) and Wayne Morris as a serviceman friend hired to help deceive everyone are both experts in this kind of farce. Kathleen Alexander does a nice job as Arnold's patient wife.

Patricia Neal would have to wait awhile before Warners found some suitable roles for her--but this film debut was almost successful despite the obvious miscasting.

Overall, a good cast. This was obviously a much better play as the dialogue suffers from the restrictive censorship code of the time. Patricia Neal's debut demonstrates why she was never known for light comedy. The most curious thing is that the budget is listed as $1.3 million. How is that possible? Similar movies of the day weren't even close to that budget.

I really like this movie. It is just one of those that is fun to watch . . . and re-watch.

Ronald Reagan and Jack Carson are hilarious together. They both are on the edge of a nervous breakdown throughout the story because of all of the trouble they've gotten themselves into. One lie leads to another and their troubles get bigger and bigger.

I think that Patricia Neal does a good job in this role. I think that she was a great actress but I'm not sure that this was the best role for her. The movie was originally planned for Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan together but when the Reagans split up, the part of Mary was given to Patricia Neal.

When I come across people who have not seen any of Ronald Reagan's movies, I think of this one. He does a great job with this comedy.

I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as I do.

Patricia Neal in her screen debut is "Mary" and she loves "John," played by Ronald Reagan in this lightweight comedy, "John Loves Mary." She expects him home from service any day and wants the moment when he sees her to be just right, with "Someone to Watch Over Me" playing. But things are never that easy. Not with fellow serviceman Jack Carson involved. Jack did save his life once. Therefore, Ronnie felt indebted to him. But an attempt to help Jack out with his love life backfires on Ronald and he and Patricia have to wait to get married due to him being married to Jack's foreign girlfriend to bring her into the country. But it seems that upon meeting Jack, he learns that, despite the fact that Jack couldn't live without her, he had married someone else since then. What a pickle! Ronnie is trying to keep all this from Patricia and her politician father, played Edward Arnold. I saw this almost twenty years ago and I thought I had memories of liking it. But upon seeing it recently, I found this to be too stagy, due to its play origins, too silly, and a little annoying at times. One would probably like this for the people in it, but the situations feel forced to me and I really didn't find it to be that funny. In fact, afterwards I felt that it wasted the stars and it was all a to-do over nothing, despite the affable dispositions of Ronnie and company.