JohnHowardReid Claudette Colbert's first film as a free-lance artist. She declined to renew her Paramount contract, stating that she wanted to have the freedom to choose her own roles at whatever studios were prepared to pay her price — $150,000 per picture. "I have worked hard to attain both economic and artistic freedom. Now I am going to do what I wish."What Claudette didn't say was that a lot of her dissatisfaction with Paramount arose not from the studio's choice of her films, but from the way they were possibly to be photographed. Like Marlene Dietrich, Claudette Colbert was a fanatic on lighting and camera angles. Unfortunately, whereas Marlene had an expert knowledge of cinematography, Claudette had not. But she knew what she liked, and what she did not. She insisted — despite evidence to the contrary — that the left side of her face photographed more attractively than her right. Thus she would never allow herself to be photographed in any other direction but facing left. You think I'm kidding? I have William K. Everson's book on Claudette in my hands right now. In every single one of the 58 photos reproduced from pages 74 through 144, Colbert is facing or looking left. In all but six of these photos, she stands or sits at the extreme right hand side of the picture. We have to go right back to 1934 where "It Happened One Night" to find a still of Claudette facing slightly to the right.Colbert felt that if she stayed at Paramount, her turn in front of Seitz's camera was bound to arrive sooner or later. And Seitz was not a photographer who would take "suggestions" from anybody - not even the producer or the director, let alone a member of the cast! Claudette was unwilling to face this confrontation. Who will blame her? This gave her yet another reason not to sign again with her former employer, but to free-lance.For her first independent vehicle, she chose to go with the sort of role at which she was especially adept: — the loving girl who is forced to act out a phony part in order to attract or keep the man she really loves. Light, romantic, fluffy stuff in which a series of misunderstandings and complications are winsomely spun out for eighty minutes or so and then majestically resolved in five or ten. To keep herself the center of attention, the heroine of this airily elegant romance — these stories always take place in the most opulent surroundings — needs at least two leading men, plus a chorus of disapproving elders. Don Ameche, a little inclined to over-do the double takes and facial mugging, provides one corner of the triangle, whilst Dick Foran (here rather oddly billed as "Richard Foran" instead of the more familiar "Dick") holds up the other most ingratiatingly. The disapprovers include such masterful cameo players as Grant Mitchell, Charles Dingle, Edward Gargan and Chester Clute — the last in one of the funniest roles of his career as an inquisitive shoe salesman. Director Sam Wood keeps the mixture of bedroom farce, light romance and comic cut-ups frothing merrily and stylishly.

bob the moo Married couple Chris and Mary are about to set out for a second honeymoon whenever Chris's old friend Joe comes to town. Mary doesn't like Joe because he always brings trouble and this time is no exception. It seems that Joe has been using a fictional wife to improve his job prospects – even sending pictures of his wife and letters from her to his boss to impress upon him what a great guy he is (in the eyes of his fictional wife). However when his employers request the presence of Mrs Parker in New York, Joe has to ask Mary to stand in. Being a good friend Chris says yes and, with him stuck in town, Mary and Joe head off together, apparently oblivious of the sheer amount of problems that they will create.The basic idea behind this plot means that it is the Mary and Joe that have the best chemistry and spend the most time together on screen, this is a risk that it takes because it means the audience could have felt more for them as a couple rather than Chris as Mary's husband. This would have been a disaster (particularly at the time of release) but the film manages to keep it fresh and keep us engaged in the marriage while also enjoying the sparks between Joe and Mary. It cleverly makes a game to excuse the chemistry and stops us worrying about whether real love is blossoming or not. By doing this it keeps it light and enjoyable, consistently amusing and occasionally laugh out loud funny thanks to some sharp lines and jokes.The cast match this effortlessly. Colbert has great fun with an increasingly playful role that shapes the film and the other characters; she is the lead and her comic performance is great. Ameche also changes across the whole film as well, going from playboy to "rabbit in headlights" easily and convincingly. Foran has the hardest role in terms of engaging the audience but he does pretty well with a rather simple lug of a character. Support from people like Dingle, Mitchell, Bacon and others in minor roles all help the generally comic air come over consistently.Overall this is a bit of a balancing act and it is to its credit that it manages to pull it off and keep the audience onside. It is all light, fluffy stuff of course but it is surprising just how enjoyable it is if you are in the mood for it. If you're looking for something inconsequential and fun then you could do a lot worse than trying this film.

theowinthrop This is one of those patented situation comedies that are repeatedly used in the movies or television. So and so has a job, and his boss is a believer in the sanctity of marriage. Somehow the boss learns that so and so is married, and has a nice marriage. When he gets an opportunity, the boss invites so and so and his wife to spend the weekend at his home...which panics so and so because he really is not married, but circumstances (ah, those perennial circumstances) have led to his having claimed he was married. Now his job and his future are on the line...what should he do?Why, borrow the wife of his best friend, of course!Variations appear everywhere: Christmas IN CONNECTICUT, for instance, has Barbara Stanwyck usurping the home of her friend Reginald Gardiner to impress her sanctimonious boss Sydney Greenstreet (who has another great "rounded" fat name - Alexander Yardley). On television a failed series in the middle 1960s was OCCASIONAL WIFE, which had an executive in a baby food company requiring a fake wife for the happiness of his employer. He uses his neighbor two floors beneath his apartment (the hero and heroin frequently have to meet on the fire escape of the apartment between theirs, leading to a running joke of the reaction of the man who owns that apartment. About the same time Jack Lemmon made his film GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM, where a married man has to help his neighbor (Romy Schneider) inherit her wealth by pretending he is her husband (Mike Connors). Connors reciprocates by pretending to be married to Lemmon's real wife Connie Stevens (leading to some complicated incidents of both men purposely making each other jealous -and almost driving neighbor Robert Q. Lewis crazy in the process). Despite it's repetitive use it is not a bad plot, and in GUEST WIFE it was well handled. Here Ameche is a reporter for a newspaper - magazine chain, who has had to make up his marriage to make his copy more relevant. It has made Ameche a major news figure, and his boss (Charles Dingle, pleasantly using his pompous threatening characterization to comic use - and quite well) wants to meet the little woman, who behaved so bravely in the Far East. As Ameche has based her on Claudette Colbert (the wife of his best friend Dick Foran), he goes to Foran to get permission to borrow Claudette for a few hours (for dinner with Dingle). Foran is willing, but Colbert is tired of the number of times Ameche has somehow manipulated Foran into doing things for Ameche that were not in the interest of either Foran and Colbert.But she goes along, until she finds that Dingle has become more plans for them in the coming weekend. Ameche, for fears for his job, willingly expands the time that Colbert is with him, but this slowly gets the formerly subservient Foran to resent his friend more and more. This leads to some nice pieces of comedy with hotel detective Grant Mitchell and with nosy neighbor Chester Clute. And Colbert, sensing an opportunity she won't miss, takes advantage of the situation to keep turning up the heat on a flustered Ameche. It turns out to be a nice little comedy, well worth viewing and even watching again.

Maxi-14 Don Ameche steals the show in this black and white romantic comedy. Don Ameche is in wonderful form. He not only delivers his lines with perfection but his use of his eyes makes his character, Joe, come to life. This movie promises many laughs. Claudette Colbert also offers up a good performance as Mary, the wife that Joe borrows from his best friend Chris.