AFFECTIONATELY YOURS

US, 1941, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Merle Oberon, Dennis Morgan, Rita Hayworth, George Tobias, Ralph Bellamy, James Gleason, Hattie Mc Daniel.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon.

Affectionately Yours is one of numerous screwball comedies made by most companies during the '30s and '40s.

This is a Warner Bros. version, directed by Lloyd Bacon - who specialised in rather tougher films but who was to move in the '40s and '50s into a variety of film-making including some musicals. The film is an enjoyable enough example of its kind, though in no way outstanding. There are the usual misunderstandings: a foreign correspondent whose wife has walked out on him, an attractive feminine correspondent, the wife about to marry a genial no-hoper, the husband returning home unexpectedly and encountering his editor who misunderstands the situation. There are numerous misunderstandings - with the wife always rushing to her ex-husband when she thinks he is ill. It is no surprise to find out that they end up happily ever after.

Where the film is worth seeing is in the stars and their work at the time. Merle Oberon had moved from Britain to America (and had appeared in Wuthering Heights) and tries her hand at this kind of screwball farcical comedy. She Is a bit serious for this kind of role but glamorous and earnest. Dennis Morgan fits easily into the role of the hero as Ralph Bellamy does, almost too typically, into the role of the genial other man. James Gleason is the editor of the paper. Of more interest is the actress portraying the foreign correspondent - a forward and glamorous lady: Rita Hayworth. Nothing remarkable, but interesting for its stars.