My Love Came Back (1940)

The doting CEO (Charles Winninger) of a major music company is smitten by a young music student (Olivia De Havilland). Although married, he secretly arranges for a scholarship out of his company's funds to help pay for her education. Misunderstandings and complications follow which causes problems for all concerned. Directed by Curtis Bernhardt (A STOLEN LIFE), this is an American remake of a 1935 Austrian film called EPISODE. It's a silly but not unpleasant piece of screwball comedy. One of the problems of the studio system was that it often cast its contract players in films they aren't suited for. Here, Olivia De Havilland and Jeffrey Lynn are cast as the romantic leads but De Havilland (a skilled dramatic actress) and Lynn (never the most imposing of leading men) don't seem to have a funny bone in their acting bodies. Fortunately, the supporting players make up for their lack of farcicality. With Jane Wyman, Eddie Albert, Spring Byington, S.Z. Sakall and as Winninger's son, William T. Orr, who would become a prolific TV producer at Warners in the 50s and 60s.