Obliging Young Lady (1942)

I love this movie so much

Wonderful character development!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Director: RICHARD WALLACE. Screenplay: Frank Ryan and Bert Granet. Original screen story Arthur T. Horman and Jerry Cady. Photography: Nicholas Musuraca. Film editor: Henry Berman. Art directors: Albert S. D'Agostino, Carroll Clark. Set decorator: Darrell Silvera. Costumes: Renie. Music composed by Roy Webb, directed by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Assistant director: Sam Ruman. Sound recording: Hugh McDowell Jr. RCA Sound System. Producer: Howard Benedict. Copyright 8 September 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Palace: 12 February 1942. U.S. release: 30 January 1942. Australian release: 5 March 1942. 7,338 feet. 81 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A young girl finds herself the center of a custody battle. COMMENT: An unexpected find. A gem. Why isn't this movie better-known? I agree entirely with a previous breezy reviewer. Not only is this a well-produced and absolutely hilarious comedy, but the fun gets crazier and daffier at every turn of the chucklesome plot. It's beautifully acted by a fine cast. In addition to the talented principals and other gifted comics like Eve Arden who are along for the ride, some of our favorite character players are spotted here and there, including Ralph Sanford as Pudgy, George Lloyd as another court attendant, Jimmy Conlin as the man hit with the pot, Hal K. Dawson as a train Romeo, George Chandler as Skip, Emory Parnell as the first motorcycle cop, and Joseph Crehan as the newspaper editor. Superbly photographed - in black-and-white of course - by Nicholas Musuraca and inventively directed at a really smart pace by Richard Wallace, An Obliging Young Lady is one of the greatest comedies RKO ever made.

This weirdly inept attempt at screwball comedy is undone by the casting of its three leads. Edmond O'Brien -- best remembered today as the desperate poisoning victim in the 1950 cult classic "D.O.A." and the alcoholic senator in "Seven Days In May" (1964) -- and Ruth Warrick -- known primarily for playing Charles Foster Kane's first wife in "Citizen Kane" and a long run on a TV soap opera -- were never known as adept farceurs. And moppet actress Joan Carroll has the kind of physical and verbal precocity that makes the audience wonder if perhaps she might not be a midget (OK, "little person," if we have not yet appropriately repudiated the silliness of political correctness). And she's a little person with a distracting tendency to let her mouth hang open in closeup reaction shots, at that. The script -- rewritten (over Frank Ryan) by Bert Granet, suggesting that a certain paucity of talent may have been what redirected him to demi-success as a TV producer in the '50s and '60s -- is littered with what are presumably meant to be running gags, but bespeak a lack of understanding that to merit that classification, the shtik must be funny, not merely repetitive. These "runners" include the bizarre notion of a train's sound mimicking the name of a famous baseball player of the period, Heinie Manusch, and every passenger on the train getting the name stuck in their head, treating us to tedious extended sequences of extras chanting the name over and over again in syncopation with the chugging of the locomotive. There is also Carroll's character, Bridget, who repeatedly demands, for no apparent reason, "What's wrong with the name Bridget?" This farrago of badly-executed ideas is ultimately ill-served by the direction of B movie hack Richard Wallace, whose coverage is so inadequate that the cutter is repeatedly forced to go from masters to two-shots in which actors' positions and expressions change radically, making startling jump cuts out of what should be seamless transitions. Wallace even manages to undermine the usually-redoubtable Eve Arden, evidently sabotaging her trademark talent for wringing laughs from the lamest one-liners by underplaying. It almost looks like Wallace coaxed her to overact. It's painful to watch...not unlike the film as a whole.

it's the fringe, supporting character actors that keep this movie even partly interesting. the basic plot is sound - a secretary in a law firm must take a little girl up to a vacation lodge to keep her feuding parents from abducting her. Frank Pangborn is the leader of the birdwatching group that shows up at the lodge - he's great as always, but that birdcall bit goes on for 4 minutes and 15 seconds - way too long. viewers will recognize Charles Lane, the detective (usually plays a cop, judge, or a very serious clerk.) Eve Arden plays fellow reporter trying to get a story on the little girl. several recurring gags - the rhythm of the train wheels, the lunatic staff of the lodge, the pranks that the little girl plays. and that cast-list on IMDb - longer than a soup line in NYC! the leads are Ed O'Brien & Ruth Warrick This was one of Warrick's and Obrien's first roles, so that may explain the lack of chemistry between them.

Ruth Warrick does not exude charm. Edmund O'Brein is fun but a little strange in a comic role. The child is all right.The plot if lots of fun, though, and some of the supporting players are delightful.Franklin Pangborn gets one of the juiciest roles I've ever seen him in. He plays the leader of a bird watchers group.I have to say, his role seems modeled somewhat on Charlie Ruggles's in "Bringing Up Baby." But the bird watchers' assault on the hideaway hotel is genuinely hilarious.The whole movie has a sweet, friendly quality.