If I were Anabel (Betsy Drake) and ran into Madison Brown (Cary Grant) at the lunch counter and then in the department store where I worked buying baby booties and being charmingly nice to young children, I'm sure that I, too, would see no other course than to stalk him until we were married. The movie was wonderfully hilarious.
One of the most wonderful things about the movie is that Dr. Brown knows what Anabel is up to the entire time. When she stalks him for two weeks to learn all of his habits, interests, and favorite foods, he lets her know he was aware the whole time. During Anabel's first attempt to get Dr. Brown, which goes a little wrong because she does not know yet that he is a "baby doctor," she makes an appointment with him and tells him all about her "insomnia...it might be emotional." Dr. Brown tells her "I’d recommend a little less romantic imagination and more sleep." Annabel has her work cut out for her. She has to find craftier and craftier ways to get Dr. Brown's attention. "I know it’s dreadful," she tells her friend "but it’s the kind of thing men force us to do."
1 comment:
I like this film very much too. The critics never praised Betsy Drale, arguably the most intelligent actress in Hollywood history, not once. Her earnest delivery and fascinatingly cultivated voice are both perfect matches for Cary Grant's liveliness andability to deliver one-liners. Perhaps they objected, as I do, to the film's script--no fault of Miss Drake's. But Hollywood 'tsars' I assert had no desire nor mental ability to make films tailored to independent females...They couldn't find scripts for Eve Arden, Greer Garson, Eleanor Powell, Vera Miles nor any other adult female from Kay Francs to Rita Gam to Celeste Yarnall to Charlene Polite.
The beauty of this very enjoyable film then comes from the players as they develop their believable characters; and the script is amusing, sometimes intelligent and thanks to the stars, utterly delightful in many places. It's worth 3 1/2 stars any day.
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