THE LADY IS WILLING
US, 1942, 91 minutes, Black and white.
Marlene Dietrich, Fred Mac Murray, Aline Mac Mahon, Stanley Ridges.
Directed by Mitchell Leisen.
The Lady Is Willing is a pleasantly unassuming comedy of the early '40s. It is in the screwball romantic comedy tradition of the '30s - but a bit more genteel in the style of the '40s. Fred Mac Murray was at home in this kind of film. However, it is a chance for audiences to see Marlene Dietrich doing her work as a comedienne (and trying to be ordinary while extraordinary). The plot is a pleasant piece of nonsense about an actress finding a baby and wanting to adopt it. Marrying a doctor for convenience - clashing, falling in love, having a happy family.
The film is done in style under the direction of veteran Mitchell Leisen, maker of many romantic comedies and dramas at Paramount in the '40s.
1. An entertaining American comedy? The appeal of the stars?
2. Mitchell Leisen's style, touches of glamour? The background of the theatre? The sequences in apartments, hospitals? Musical score?
3. The title and the focus on Liza, her arrival with the baby, the reaction of her staff, her not knowing anything about babies, her imperious style and finger-snapping commands? Her love for the baby? Comic touches - with her staff, ordering out the drinking bar, finding names? Calling the doctor? Her confrontation with the police? Her persuading the lady to let her keep the baby? Problems with the tax man, the officials in- the apartment block? The decision to find a husband? The encounter with Dr Mc Bain? The discussion about rabbits and finance? The marriage? Corey's first wife - and Liza's jealousy? The happy domestic sequences, at the theatre, Victor and his attentions, the happy night out, their falling in love? The clash? Boston, the baby sick, the operation, her going on with the show? The happy ending? Marlene Dietrich's style as a comedienne?
4. Dr McBain?, his not liking children, his experiments, the rabbits, the money, accepting the marriage, falling in love with Liza, his ex-wife and the complications, his success with the experiment, getting the money back, unwilling to do the operation, its success, the happy ending?
5. Buddy and Ken - the devoted companions helping Liza? Worldly wisdom? Cover-ups? Good friends?
6. Victor and the satire on the romantic leading man of musical comedies?
7. The gallery of characters: the police, the couple and their lawyer trying to swindle Liza and Corey's exposure of their fraud, the income tax man, the doctor in Boston? Characters for romantic comedy?
8. Themes of marriage, family, selflessness and selfishness? Sentiment? Humour?
