edwagreen An inane farce where a screenwriter, Dick Powell, winds up marrying a delinquent, 17 years old and played by Debbie Reynolds. They wed so she can stay out of jail and then Powell goes off to write his screenplay.Ann Francis steals the scenes she is in as the jilted fiancée of Powell.There are some interesting characters, one Glenda Farrell. In the end, everyone finds basically what they're looking for out of life.There is a nice dream sequence where the two ladies compete for Powell's attention.Snappy dialogue but the story itself is so ornery.

samhill5215 This is a weird one. It's an older man/very young woman kind of story but it's not played that way until the very end. When they finally get around to it it's handled well but only too briefly. During the whole film you can't but notice the really obvious age difference. Dick Powell was 50 and Debbie Reynolds 22. He was old enough to be her father. He was old enough to be Anne Francis' father who was 26 at the time. The story is actually pretty good. The downside is that it's really just a comedy but occasionally it takes itself too seriously.The cast was excellent. It was great to see Glenda Farrell in a more mature part. I love her brassy style. Dick Powell was pretty good too in, as someone else noted, his last film. Red Skelton was a surprise. He pops up for the blink of an eye and then disappears. Anne Francis was a knockout, as always. She dominated every scene and some of her lines had real zing. Thanks to TCM for running her out of circulation movies. The difference with Debbie Reynolds couldn't be more pronounced at all levels but I guess that was the point.Then there's the dream sequence, one of the coolest fantasy segments I've seen in a long time. Francis appears as a spider woman, spinning her web around Powell while the child-woman, Reynolds, attempts to keep that from happening. Again, the difference between them couldn't be more pronounced. The tall, curvaceous Francis was like a cool drink on a hot summer day. Reynolds was no match. She couldn't hope to compete but gave it a good try anyway. Too spunky for my taste.Bottom line, it's worth watching for the actors more than anything else. You shouldn't take the story too seriously and the lines sometimes get in the way when they're just plain silly. But hey, Anne Francis is in it, that alone is worth a look.

macpet49-1 OK, the costumes, scenery, dance routines etc are all great Hollywood Silver or Golden Era blah, blah, blah.Doesn't anyone else think it is abominable that a middle-aged man takes a teenager for a wife besides me? Even if he was doing her an immense favor by getting her off the streets, c'mon! This is, I think, every forty-fiftyish male's daydream (To rescue a wench and have them be devoted to you and btw recapture your youth!)however it is difficult to condone! This is folly. Why doesn't the elder woman in the plot take some responsibility and say "OK, enough is enough. This girl still needs parents and ought to be allowed to grow up before she's having babies and keeping house for strangers." But in the typical Hollywood fashion, nobody does a thing and ends up thinking it's great because this street urchin is going to 'fix' this confused elderly man. It's still going on--Clint Eastwood et al. They trade in wives like used cars.Shame on Hollywood, once again!

theowinthrop It must have been in the air at the time, though why in the Eisenhower Years? In the 1950s several films (two by Billy Wilder) had successful marriages between young women and middle aged men. Wilder's two films were SABRINA (where Audrey Hepburn falls for Humphrey Bogart) and LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (where Hepburn fell for Gary Cooper). Hepburn also was paired in FUNNY FACE with Fred Astaire. Astaire was also in the movie DADDY LONG LEGS with Leslie Caron as his ward turned lover. Caron would also be in GIGI where her little girl is paired off with a slightly older Louis Jourdan. And there was SUSAN SLEPT HERE, Frank Tashlin's second feature film comedy, starring Dick Powell and Debbie Reynolds. The difference in ages is mentioned - Debbie Reynolds is supposed to be 17 (she was 21 at the time), but Powell is supposed to be roughly 20 years older. He is supposed to have been an early Oscar winner (for screenplay) and to have served in the navy with his friend Virgil (Alvy Moore), who was his superior officer. It is possible if Powell was 55 to concede this, but he is supposed to be about 43 or so. He just looks too old. But despite this the film does work. It has good lines in it (particularly some zingers used by Glenda Farrell at her favorite target Anne Francis, and by Les Tremayne as Powell's overwrought and overworked attorney). Powell is a successful if jaded screenwriter who is dating Anne Francis, a snobbish Senator's daughter. On Christmas Eve he is visited by two members of the L.A. Vice Squad (Herb Vigran and Horace MacNally) who have a "gift" to drop off. Vigran had been an adviser on a film script that Powell worked on, and the latter made the mistake of mumbling an idea about having a day or so talk with a genuine juvenile delinquent about his lifestyle). Of course the problem is he meant a male juvenile delinquent. Vigran (in what is really the only weakness of the story) has arrested Debbie Reynolds in a brawl with some military police, but has not reported it yet. He thinks she'd be perfect to give to Powell for his research over Christmas Day (Vigran eventually pays for this stupidity and it's outcome by getting demoted - he's lucky, in real life he might get arrested and charged with pimping). The plan is for Debbie to be "rearrested" on December 26th, and thus to act as though nothing wrong was done.Powell is not pleased with this - he can't depend on his secretary Farrell, nor on Moore (who quickly takes a powder). He tries to work around the "Susan" problem, but no matter what he tries it blows up in his face. Worse, Reynolds answers the phone by habit, and Francis discovers that her boy friend has an underage girl in his house.Slowly, however, Powell and Reynolds settle down and learn about each other's life. It turns out Reynolds mother is out of the U.S. with her second husband (a man Reynolds thinks was a better choice than the first husband, who was her own father). The mother is one of these modern types, and has left a note of consent for whomever Reynolds meets whom she may wish to marry. Powell finds that she is a feisty and independent young woman, and he finds himself falling for her. But when Moore learns that they shared Powell's apartment for the night, he drags Powell's lawyer Tremayne into it. Tremayne starts planning damage control to prevent a scandal or worse* But the detectives return to pick up Reynolds (Vigran's Sergeant is not very understanding about what they did - really hard to understand that reaction!!). (*Having sexual relations with any underage child or girl is always treated quite harshly in the U.S., but California had a really heavy reputation in this area back in the 1920s - 1960s because of the Hollywood crowd. In the Marx Brothers' 1940 comedy GO WEST, Groucho's name of "S. Quentin Quayle" was based on the term "San Quentin quail" which was about under-aged, but attractive girls who got men into serious trouble when arrested. The trial of Errol Flynn for rape in 1944 was worse because the two victims were teenage girls. I may remind you also of the still odd situation involving director Roman Polanski today concerning a statutory rape charge from California.)Powell flees with Reynolds to Las Vegas where they can get legally married despite her age. He reasons that they can remain married for a few months (while he is working in Sun Valley on a screenplay) and she can then get the marriage annulled, while he finds her a job. But Reynolds is determined to prove herself a good wife. And Powell is not all that sure if he wants her to cease being his wife - especially after Tremayne sees evidence that she may be pregnant.The wit in the script is hard to describe - it ranges from comments like Farrell momentarily thinking Reynolds has arrived in Sun Valley, and welcoming her with a "Come to momma", but finding it is Francis (whom she loathes) and saying, "Oh, Dracula's daughter!", to Tremayne having a session with his psychiatrist interrupted by an angry Powell, and letting Powell take over his session as Tremayne can bill him for it later). The acting is good. Anyone who thinks of Moore only as "Hank Kimble" on GREEN ACRES should see his rather thoughtful Virgil, who gets an emotional slap-in-the-face from Reynolds that makes him rethink himself carefully. All in all it is far better than one would have thought - given the one blunder in the screenplay that I mentioned.