JOHN LOVES MARY
US, 1949, 96 minutes. Black and white.
Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson, Wayne Morris, Edward Arnold, Virginia Field, Katharine Alexander, Paul Harvey.
Directed by David Butler.
John Loves Mary is based on a very popular play by Norman Krazner, adapted for the screen by Henry and Phoebe Ephron (the parents of director and writer Norah Ephron). The film is very much a stage play, most of the action being confined to a hotel room.
Ronald Reagan is bright and breezy as the hero, John Laurence, returning from the war to his fiancée, Patricia Neal in her introductory role. His life has been saved by his best friend, Jack Carson, who turns up to welcome him home.
Patricia Neal, Mary, has a father who is a pompous senator. He is played in his usual style by Edward Arnold. Katharine Alexander is her indulgent mother. There are various jokes about American politics. This is particularly interesting in hindsight, with Ronald Reagan up there onscreen and much discussion about the Senate, Congress, legislation...
There is a complication that John Laurence has gone through a ceremony of marriage with his friend Fred’s girlfriend. Fred had thought she had been killed during the Blitz and has married and is expecting a child. However, John is about to reveal this to his fiancée when her father turns up – and he is changing his trousers. If only he had had time to pull them up, there might have been an explanation and no film. As it is, one lie leads to another, cover-ups, all kinds of plans – and farcical episodes with people moving in and out.
One of the plans is to persuade their old lieutenant whom they detested (Wayne Morris) who is now an usher at the cinema, to pretend to be an officer ordering Laurence back to service for sixty days, just enough time for a divorce and everything to be all right. However, the British wife turns up a day early and complicates affairs.
The film works all its clues rather well together – it is a very verbal film, a lot of humour, Reagan being particularly bright and breezy, Edward Arnold pompously laughing at his own jokes, Wayne Morris acting the fool, Virginia Field not particularly convincing as the British wife. However, Patricia Neal seems in herself not to be ditzy enough to be Mary. Patricia Neal was an accomplished actress, intelligent actress – but is not persuasive as a dumb blonde type.
All’s well that ends well – the film was directed by David Butler, a regular at Warner Bros, especially for many of its musicals at this time.
1. An entertaining film of the 1940s? A piece of Americana? Post-World? War Two?
2. Based on a play, the scenes in confined spaces, the hotel room? The hotel lobby? The cinema? The importance of dialogue? Wit? The complications of the plot – and the coincidences, touches of farce? Musical score?
3. The title, the commonplace of John Loves Mary? A universal story?
4. Mary, her love for John, letters during the war, parcels? Anticipating his return? In the hotel, wealthy, Oscar and his preparing the room? Fred and his arrival? Her listening to Fred’s story? Sympathetic? Fixing things up when John arrived? Her wanting to start again? Her love for John, her being a touch ditzy? The plans, the wedding? John and his change of clothes? Her father arriving? The tantrums? Love for John, criticising him, disappointed in him?
5. John, the phone call, Ronald Reagan, genial? The arrival, love for Mary? His meeting Fred? The revelation of the story about Lily, her seeming death, her surviving, her wedding with John so that she could come to America? The plan for the Reno divorce? And that all would be well? The pressure of Mary for an immediate wedding? His reminiscences about the war, reliving Fred saving his life?
6. The senator, pompous, the humorous comments about t Senate and the Congress? His criticisms of Mary, his criticisms of John? Phyllis and her trying to calm everything down, support Mary? The plans for the wedding, the mayor, the detail? The short weight? The documents and the blood test?
7. The plan, O’ Leary and their dislike of him, his working in the cinema, his pretending to be a lieutenant, his drinking, his making the case for John to go into service? His return to the cinema – and the story of the general, his encounter with O’Leary? drunk, the fight? The irony of his turning up at the end, wanting to get the story straight, encountering the general? His past relationship with Lily?
8. The plans, buying the ticket? Mary and her mother encountering the general, the general and his phone calls, the mix-ups, trying to find the orders? The exception and marriage on the same day?
9. John, giving up, despair? The truth?
10. Lily, her visit, the revelations? Her smooching with Fred? Her return, being left in the taxi while Fred went to the birth of his baby? Her explaining everything?
11. The resolution, the relief? The fact that Mary loved John? And approval all round? Fred and the birth of his baby boy?
