ONE LAST FLING

US, 1949, 65 minutes, Black and white.
Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott, Douglas Kennedy, Jim Backus, Helen Westcott, Ann Doran, Veda Ann Berg.
Directed by Peter Godfrey.

One Last Fling is the slightest of Warner Brothers romantic comedies. It runs for just over an hour, a supporting feature from 1949. However, it has a cast of Warner Brothers featured actors, especially Alexis Smith in the central role and Zachary Scott as her husband. The film was directed by Peter Godfrey, who made a number of much better comedies at Warner Brothers prior to this.

The setting is business, the record companies and shops, after WWII. Zachary Scott plays a severe husband who believes that his role is to support his wife and that she is not to work. Zachary Scott was very good in more sinister roles, especially in Mildred Pierce. However, here he lacks comic personality as well as comic timing, something of a rather wimpish male which undermines the satire and the comedy. On the other hand, Alexis Smith as his wife, is, as always, a strong screen presence. She does not want to be a trophy wife but wants to work.

However, there are memories from the war, especially a friend that the husband worked for and whom he wants to give but job to as she goes through a divorce from a very jealous husband. She is played by Veda Ann Borg, her husband by Douglas Kennedy. The wife thinks that she has been picked for the job and comes back to work. A whole lot of tantrums follow, rather silly in their presentation, the wife confiding in her secretary, Ann Doran, who is always blunt and honest in what she says, cutting through the silliness. Jim Bacchus has a role as the manager of the store who expected to be promoted but has a thing for Alexis Smith.

The film does reflect something of the role of women and in the aftermath of the war and issues of employment, as well as women wanting stronger roles in society as well as in the family. It does show the obtuseness of some of the men.
However, it is a curiosity item.