Producer: Buddy Adler. Copyright 16 February 1950 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 16 March 1950 (ran 2 weeks). U.S. release: April 1950. U.K. release: 17 July 1950. Australian release: 29 September 1950. 7,721 feet. 85 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Gossip columnists couple a hard-headed dean with a visiting professor of astronomy.
PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Who said the screwball romantic comedy was exterminated by WW2 and had no innings after 1945?
COMMENT: A broadly acted - all the players are in excellent form - and highly amusing farce. It's a screwball comedy in fact, attractively photographed, and boasting equally A-1 production values, and of course top technical credits.
The polished script contrives a whole raft of entertaining twists to flesh out a basically simple plot of romantic chase and entanglements. And no-one can put down an eager Romeo as effectively as Rosalind Russell, the Gladys Cooper of the younger set.
Feminists will hate the movie of course. Even more importantly, it was dismissed by the critics. Hence the fact that the film is little-known outside a devoted circle of Rosalind Russell and Ray Milland fans.
Aside from Mary Jane Saunders, an amateurish child if ever there was one, the saviors of this film's slight story are the actors. Spirited playing from the principals and from a fine cast of support artists, including Harry Tyler as a photographer and Lucille Ball as herself, make the proceedings seem twice as bright as they deserve to be. Astute direction and ingratiating photography help too.
SYNOPSIS: Gossip columnists couple a hard-headed dean with a visiting professor of astronomy.
PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Who said the screwball romantic comedy was exterminated by WW2 and had no innings after 1945?
COMMENT: A broadly acted - all the players are in excellent form - and highly amusing farce. It's a screwball comedy in fact, attractively photographed, and boasting equally A-1 production values, and of course top technical credits.
The polished script contrives a whole raft of entertaining twists to flesh out a basically simple plot of romantic chase and entanglements. And no-one can put down an eager Romeo as effectively as Rosalind Russell, the Gladys Cooper of the younger set.
Feminists will hate the movie of course. Even more importantly, it was dismissed by the critics. Hence the fact that the film is little-known outside a devoted circle of Rosalind Russell and Ray Milland fans.
Aside from Mary Jane Saunders, an amateurish child if ever there was one, the saviors of this film's slight story are the actors. Spirited playing from the principals and from a fine cast of support artists, including Harry Tyler as a photographer and Lucille Ball as herself, make the proceedings seem twice as bright as they deserve to be. Astute direction and ingratiating photography help too.