John Loves Mary (1949)

A returning G.I. (Ronald Reagan) is coming home after four years to the girl (Patricia Neal) he loves. There are so many things he wants to tell her but that he's married isn't one of them. Based on the Broadway play by Norman Krasna and directed by David Butler (CALAMITY JANE). This romantic farce was a hit on Broadway running for a year. What theatregoers saw in it, I'll never know. I found it inane and unfunny but to be fair, the movie version is severely miscast so perhaps that might explain it but somehow I doubt it. It's the kind of fluff that needs actors adept at this sort of lightweight comedy. It might have worked with, say Van Johnson and June Allyson (unfortunately they were at MGM and this is a Warners film). So who do we get? Ronald Reagan who has no comedic chops at all and in her film debut, Patricia Neal. Neal had just won a Tony for playing the young Regina Giddens in Lillian Hellman's LITTLE FOXES prequel, ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST and someone at Warners thought it was a good idea to put her in a romcom? Comedy wasn't Neal's forte and fortunately saner head prevailed and Neal's follow up films, THE HASTY HEART and THE FOUNTAINHEAD showcased her impressive dramatic skills. Let's just say the film is "of its time" and leave it at that. With Jack Carson, Edward Arnold, Wayne Morris, Virginia Field and Katharine Alexander.