KATIE DID IT

US, 1951, 81 minutes, Black-and-white.
Ann Blyth, Mark Stevens, Cecil Kellaway, Jesse White, Craig Stevens, William H.Flynn, Elizabeth Patterson.
Directed by Frederick de Cordova.

Katie Did It is a frothy comedy from the early 1950s – perhaps harking back to the tone of the screwball comedy is of the 1930s.

The setting is a puritanical and prudish town in Massachusetts, founded by a minister, the town grew proud of its ancestry and maintained in maintaining proper standards with the touch of the prim. The leader of the town is Priscilla, played by Elizabeth Patterson, while Cecil Kellaway is her lawyer brother, prone to miss behaviour, drinking and gambling.

Katie is played by and life, Oscar-nominated for her vengeful daughter in Mildred Pierce, but also known for a range of musicals including The Great Caruso, Student Prints, Rose Marie, Kismet. The leading man is Mark Stevens, a pleasant presence.

Stevens is a commercial artist working on a sign in the town and accidentally dropped paint on Katie’s hat – antagonism follows despite his trying to make amends. He also becomes friendly with the gambling uncle who helps him with legal documents to buy courses and, unwittingly, indicates the rest of the family that the artist has children.

There are lots of misunderstandings in the screenplay, and Priscilla shocked at the sketches of women on a calendar, the uncle wanting to bet five dollars on a horse but interpreted as $495 more, Katie going to pose for a picture to earn the money, her falling in love with the artist, finding out about the horses, but again misunderstanding about the artist’s nephew. She is prepared to marry the banker of the town but discovers that he has discovered how pressurising the author older generation is.

A wedding rehearsal, an interruption, finding the truth – and, of course, a happy ending.