J'ai trois amours

The film Please Believe Me is based on a simple premise, that people who are from Texas have to be rich and vulgarly so in fact. When Deborah Kerr, a most prim and proper English lass inherits property in Texas everyone assumes she inherited something like South Fork. Especially after the English tabloids get a hold of the story and she goes sailing to the other side of the pond to claim her inheritance.

On ship three guys start buzzing around Kerr, playboy Robert Walker, millionaire Peter Lawford, and lawyer Mark Stevens. Walker has a real good reason for wanting to marry her, he's owing big bucks to gangster/gambler J. Carrol Naish so his courtship is tinged with some big desperation.

People will recognize the resemblance with this and the earlier RKO Ginger Rogers classic, Tom Dick, And Harry. If you think you know who Rogers winds up with after seeing that one, you'll be wrong. Please Believe Me also bears strong resemblance to another MGM film with Jane Wyman, Three Guys Named Mike.

Kerr's career in America was zooming into high gear at this time, she was doing a number of classic films like King Solomon's Mines and Edward My Son. This one is funny, but it seems like it was done as an afterthought, all the men and her happened to be free so let's do this property we've had sitting around for a while.

Funny, but Please Believe Me won't be on anyone's top ten.

What superb direction -- and please, hard as it is, believe this is the same Norman Taurog that basted more Elvis Presley turkeys than any other director. Here, Taurog is the star, slowed down only by an uneven cast and a script that creaked in a couple of places as it flexed its plot. Deborah Kerr is supreme, though, as the sentimental English poppy who is tricked up and down until she buckles on her sound, common sense English ingenuity and carries the day. And she had some carrying to do: co-star Mark Stevens is pure avoirdupois with no sense of the camera. Nice jackets, though. Peter Lawford is perfect as the rich guy with a sense of fun, flaunting his sleek biceps and slim waist in a swimming pool scene he steals with aplomb. The script is a beaut, too, but the way Taurog fills each scene with exposition and shtick is a joy to behold. The lighting is highly skilled 40s workmanship. And check the roulette scene for b/w colour play. But the scene that is all Seven Wonders of Hollywood script- writing rolled into one is the showdown in gangster Quinn's office. Unbeatable for its half a dozen plot twists inside three minutes. Believe me.

Silly bauble put over by expert comic players. This was early in Deborah Kerr's Hollywood career before From Here to Eternity moved her to the front ranks and Metro was still trying to figure out what to do with her. Here her English reserve is put to good use as the three men put the big rush on her and she slowly loosens up but always manages to keep them at bay by her brains and dignity. She always was a quite charming comedienne able to elevate material like this.

The film also has several other excellent comic actors who similarly buoy the script with their charm. Peter Lawford wasn't much of a dramatic actor but for suave sophistication with a light touch, which is needed here, few were better. Two wonderful all around actors, Robert Walker and James Whitmore, are paired as a devious couple of wannabe swindlers who seem too goodhearted to be very successful at their work. The weak link, if he can be called that, is Mark Stevens, he's not bad but he lacks the breezy skill and screen presence of his fellow actors.

The film is a minor credit on all the performers resume and one of the endless trifles churned out by MGM at its peak but on that basis it's a very pleasant diversion

Deborah Kerr plays no-nonsense British lass who inherits a ranch from her Texas pen-pal and sails for the States; aboard ship, she is wooed by three bachelors: a lawyer, a millionaire playboy, and a con-artist. Sleek, genteel comedy plays like a blue-haired drawing-room farce. Kerr chirps along happily, but there's really no character here for her--just the outline of one (we can't even be sure what she did for a living back in London). Although there are no big laughs, amiable second-banana James Whitmore steals all his scenes with little effort. Extremely minor offering, one of the very last from famed producer Val Lewton, and perhaps just glossy enough to engage Kerr's fans. ** from ****

Sometimes I wonder why people who don't understand little movies like these didn't just turn them off. No offense to the other reviewers. They are, of course, entitled to their opinions.

However, for the romantics out there that can easily grasp the comic confusion of 3 men after (and sometimes not) one supposed heiress, this is a well-made romantic comedy that would hold up today with gorgeous scenery and a lovely soundtrack. I'm a chick who loves chick flicks. This isn't a guy flick by any stretch unless said guy digs chick flicks. We chicks don't get films like The Departed (this one doesn't care for it), but we romantics get a film like this.

2 of the 3 leads didn't quite make the first tier of films (one died at age 32, sadly). If this film had one more certifiable movie star, then this would have sent it to the level that might have made it memorable to many. I'm so grateful I take a chance and record films like these on TCM and then discover new faces and a new film to keep on my DVR.

This isn't the finest review. This is a suggestion to the lovers of light romantic comedy to record it the next time they see it and give it a look see. It works for me and did for this film, too:)