The Lady Is Willing (1942)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent but underrated film

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Engaging comedy with Fred and Marlene well matched and looking glamorous and gorgeous. As was her usual state Marlene is gowned in one eye popping creation after another with some extraordinary hats. She's loaded with gossamer charm as an actress who longs for motherhood and is suddenly presented with answered prayers. Endearing in her befuddlement of the simplest basics of children, including finding out whether the baby she's taken under her wing is a boy or a girl!, she still comes across as a sincerely sweet and loving person. Fred is all gruff exterior at first but his innate joviality soon shows through. The picture takes an unnecessary detour into melodrama towards the end but snaps out of it for a proper ending. A cute and frothy film with Aline MacMahon contributing a fun performance as Marlene's right hand woman.

Why does she blink all the time? The shy ingénue type? at forty? Preposterous. After a while it gets to be quite annoying. Is that the added touch to round up a dumb character? whatever, it's very difficult to accept Marlene Dietrich in such a disguise.She wears huge mink coats, shiny evening gowns (even in her kitchen and in the hospital scene) a la Cher (Yes, I know, Cher came later, but you know what I mean). Even in her more dramatic scenes she grabs that mink coat and doesn't let go, crying and all (It could have been a Carol Burnett sketch).I can only think that in those years people were extremely naive and took all these unreal props as part of movie life, so removed from their humble, dreary little lives and made it so enchanting to go home after the movie and dream while reading Photoplay or whatever movie magazine was issued back then.The movie is entertaining to a point but after a while you just want to give it up and go, do something else. All the situations are so outrageously phony that if you pretend to analyze them you'll stop watching this movie after the very first scene is completed.Froth to the nth degree.

This is a strange film due to its bizarro plot as well as its odd casting of Marlene Dietrich in, of all things, a screwball comedy!! It's actually hard to think of an actress of the day LESS suited for such a film, as her glamorous persona seemed out of place here.The film begins with a famous stage actress (Dietrich) coming home with a baby she just 'picked up' on the way home!! She is very blasé about it and eventually gets around to telling her housekeeping staff and assistant how she came upon the child. It seems that a child had been abandoned and a policeman had asked her, a passerby, to hold the baby for a moment. However, she was so captivated by it that she couldn't stand the idea of it going to an orphanage--so she just took it home and didn't bother telling anyone!! This sort of nuttiness is apparently the norm for Dietrich's character. She apparently has had a string of quickie marriages, spends far more than she earns and seems to have the motherly instincts of a 2 year-old. And, speaking of 2 year-olds, daffy Marlene calls the doctor (Fred MacMurray) for no reason in particular. When he asks how old the child is, she says "about 2 years-old"--and kid is clearly around 6-8 months old! Now HOW daffy Marlene's character acts would have been a stretch for any actress. She seemed frivolous and stupid even compared to the one played by Katherine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby"!!! So, from the outset, the writing really was a let-down for Dietrich. And having the romance eventually occur between the very level-headed baby-hating doctor (MacMurray) and her made zero sense! Overall, the film seems to be the epitome of the word 'contrived'. While there are lots of good moments and the germ of a good story here, the whole thing just never gels--it just doesn't ring true or work. It also doesn't help that the film goes from wacky to a bit maudlin and deadly serious late in the film! While the film is enjoyable if you turn off your brain, you really, really need to keep that brain in neutral throughout to enjoy the movie.

The Lady is Willing is a disappointing film. It stars Marlene Dietrich as an actress who finds an abandoned baby and decides to take him home. She soon discovers, however, that she can't adopt the baby because she's not married. So she enters into a marriage of convenience with baby doctor Fred MacMurray. Predictable complications then ensue, but this is a comedy without any big laughs. But, the stars are watchable and quite good, considering the material. Dietrich, surprisingly, had a flair for light comedy. All in all, a 4 out of 10.