This is one of those screwball comedies that tries too hard and fails miserably, giving a nearly perfect cast a chance to act like children and come out worse off than the little rascals. Foreign correspondent Dennis Morgan overacts as the ex-husband of socialite Merle Oberon, now engaged to Ralph Bellamy, and being chased around by Rita Hayworth at boss James Gleason's orders to prevent him from giving up his career to return to Oberon. This mess of a plot also features George Tobias as Morgan's sidekick, Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen as Oberon's maids and Renee Riano as a lonely hearts club worker tossed in out of the blue for no reason but to pad out Tobias's screen time.
While McDaniel is fortunately somewhat dignified, her "Gone With the Wind" co-star McQueen is not, forced to chirp in a whiny sob every time that she is on. Morgan is not at all appealing in his poorly written part, lying pathologically to get what he wants. Hayworth is striking, Oberon is glamorous, but I preferred the rivalry of Rosalind Russell and Kay Francis in the similar "The Feminine Touch" made the same year. There's only sympathy for Bellamy (the actor, not the character) as the obviously going to be jilted fiancee. Having attempted this years ago, I now realize that this deserves a one time viewing only for its cast followed by a permanent shelving.
While McDaniel is fortunately somewhat dignified, her "Gone With the Wind" co-star McQueen is not, forced to chirp in a whiny sob every time that she is on. Morgan is not at all appealing in his poorly written part, lying pathologically to get what he wants. Hayworth is striking, Oberon is glamorous, but I preferred the rivalry of Rosalind Russell and Kay Francis in the similar "The Feminine Touch" made the same year. There's only sympathy for Bellamy (the actor, not the character) as the obviously going to be jilted fiancee. Having attempted this years ago, I now realize that this deserves a one time viewing only for its cast followed by a permanent shelving.