The Voice Of The Turtle (1947)

Set in December of 1944, a struggling actress (Eleanor Parker) is having a difficult time getting over an affair with a Broadway producer (Kent Smith). When her actress friend (Eve Arden) stands up her date with a soldier (Ronald Reagan) to go out with another man (Wayne Morris), the actress and the soldier spend the weekend together. Based on the hit play (it ran for five years) by John Van Druten (I REMEMBER MAMA) and directed by Irving Rapper (NOW VOYAGER). Considered quite daring for its day, the play dealt with its heroine struggling with the practicality of chastity during wartime. Naturally, this being 1940s Hollywood, a film focusing on sexual matters was never going to happen so the film version changes the emphasis to a girl who falls in love too easily. The movie isn't successful in shaking off its theatrical roots so the film is filled with talk, talk, talk and not very scintillating talk either. The film might have worked with actors skilled in comedy but Eleanor Parker (Margaret Sullavan did the part on Broadway) and Ronald Reagan aren't the first actors one thinks of for romantic comedy (June Allyson and Van Johnson might have pulled it off). With John Emery and John Holland.