SHE WOULDN’T SAY YES

US, 1945, 87 minutes, Black-and-white.
Rosalind Russell, Lee Bowman, Adele Jergens, Charles Wininger, Harry Davenport, Sarah Haden, Percy Kilbride.
Directed by Alexander Hall.

Rosalind Russell had a significant film career, also working on stage, from the 1930s to the 1960s. She commented that she played second fiddle to Myrna Loy in many MGM comedies and dramas. However, she was significantly in The Women, then at Columbia for many years with such hits as His Girl Friday. She appeared as Sister Kenny, had a featured role in Picnic, then was the star of Auntie Mame as well as Gypsy.

This film could be seen as an archetypal Rosalind Russell film. She plays a very self-assured psychiatrist, working with GIs returning disturbed from the war. She is very matter-of-fact, advocating choices and discipline. By accident (many accidents and pratfalls) she encounters Michael Kent, Lee Bowman, the creator of an optimistic cartoon that she disapproves of.

Some more encounters and accidents, especially on the train to Chicago to her home, his coming to her apartment, getting entangled with her treatment of the rich Bolivian blonde, Adele Jergens, who has written a fantasy autobiography and needs therapy. There is also Charles Winninger as her psychiatrist father wanting her to be married, Harry Davenport as the kindly butler, Percy Kilbride as a judge who is to marry the romantic couple, without the psychiatrist realising it, Sara Haden as the receptionist.

A very good cast with everyone having something substantial to do and say.

The film has a very funny set of sequences, anticipating jokes about same-sex marriage, involving the psychiatrist, the cartoonist, a judge, his wife and the next door neighbour as a witness – all full of misunderstandings and people talking across each other.

The film is directed by Alexander Hall, a veteran from the silent era who directed a number of films at Columbia including My Sister Eileen with Rosalind Russell.

1. A popular comedy of 1945? Made during the war? Released after the end of the war? The tradition of the 1930s romantic comedies, screwball comedies?

2. The Chicago settings, the lavish apartments, psychiatric offices, the countryside and the home of the judge? The train rides, meal cars, the bunks? The musical score?

3. The film as a vehicle for Russell and Russell? Her screen image? The strong woman? Psychiatrist in a male world? Sure of herself? Yet the need for some kind of romance and fulfilment? The meaning of the title?

4. War, the issue of shellshock, psychiatrists helping the GIs on their return? Susan, helping the GI and his choices and self-affirmation, the card playing, the GI reading the comic? Her strong stands about discipline and taking responsibility for choices? The comments by the male psychiatrists about women?

5. Booking her ticket, the men at the counter reading the comic? Enjoying it? Michael Kent, his arrival? Giving him the same bunk?

6. The first encounter between Susan and Michael, all the pratfalls and accidents, his apologies, her reaction? Seeing him on the train, trying to hide? His further apologies, getting her the seat in the dining car, saying she was his wife, that she was pregnant, the gift of the drinks, of the milk? The fiasco of the bunks, the guards, the passengers, the touch of scandal?

7. Susan, her lavish home, with her father, his wanting her to marry? Albert and her care curing him of wandering? As a butler?

8. Allura, on the train, wealthy, from Bolivia, the sex symbol? Her book? Laura reading it? The visits, the therapy, the closing of the curtains, Allura and her imagination, the plan to use Michael to test her? Allura are wanting to draw men away from the woman who owned them, kiss, death? The comedy of the sessions with Susan? The meal? At the apartment, the interactions with Michael? The finale and the revelation and Allura being cured?

9. Michael, his continued attentions, turning up for breakfast, Susan putting him off, his reactions? Meeting her father, their getting on well, the father encouraging him? Going to the dinner, Susan not going, Allura and the interactions? The plan for the wedding? Briefing and rehearsing the judge?

10. Laura, her work for Susan? Going to get the salt? The joke about the same-sex marriage? Her reaction? Interpretation?

11. The comedy of misunderstandings with the judge, Laura and the interpretation of the marriage between the judge and Michael, Susan going in in thinking the judge was mad with a preoccupation about weddings? Her father getting her to go out to his house? Her arrival, his reaction, the complete misunderstandings of what was to happen, his wife and the neighbour coming in? An effective comedy of errors?

12. Michael turning up, Susan returning home, Michael arriving, communicating to her that they were married? The effect?

13. The role of Albert, with the meals, his comments, gratitude to Susan, with her father? His deciding to go back to his old wandering ways?

14. Susan, succumbing to Michael, the need for love, not wanting unhappiness?

15. His going off to war, on the train, the bunks, Susan’s father and the double bunk, the risque suggestions? And all is well that ends well?

16. A perspective on the role of women and feminism 1945 Hollywood style?