CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
MartinHafer
"Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More" is a bad film...so bad that I really had to struggle to keep watching it. I noticed that most of the reviews were reasonably good with scores mostly in the 4-6 out of 10 range...but I truly hated the movie and would never watch it again even if I was paid to do so!The film is a VERY quirky comedy and this soon becomes obvious when a gremlin (a very popular character created during WWII) appears periodically throughout the film. This mischievous jerk (voiced by Mel Blanc...would would explain why it sounds just like Bugs Bunny) decides to mess with Kathie (Simone Simon). It arranges it so she moves into an apartment that some jerk used before her--and he apparently gave out copies of his keys to EVERYONE...neighbors, guys, women and strangers. This causes problems for Kathie...though if she'd just replaced the lock all this would have become moot.The film's problem is the writing. Most of it is simply not funny and too often the film creates quirky situations and characters instead of just making them interesting of truly creative. The gremlin gag wears VERY thin very quickly....but so do most of the funny plot twists. It's a shame, as some odd but interesting character actors appeared in this one and I wanted to enjoy it. Imagine...Rondo Hatton and Froggy from the "Our Gang" shorts in the same movie!This film is simply a chore to watch and became tiresome...very quickly.
utgard14
I adore Simone Simon. She's just as cute as a button isn't she? Obviously she's most remembered today for Cat People and (maybe) The Devil and Daniel Webster, but this is a rare starring role for her in a wartime romantic comedy. She plays a superstitious girl from Quebec who comes to Washington, DC to work at a defense plant. When her roommate gets married, she's left without a place to stay. She lucks out when she meets a Marine about to ship out. He gives her the key to his apartment to stay there while he's away. But what he fails to tell her is that he's also given keys to some of his friends so they have a place to crash when they are in town. This leads to several comedic situations where the men show up unannounced and the nosy neighbor lady gets all the wrong ideas. Then it's just a wait to see which lucky guy Simone winds up with in the end. You will NOT guess, let me assure you of that! Simone is absolutely charming in this and funny, too. Her thick accent may make her hard to understand at times but who cares -- she's irresistible! James Ellison and William Terry play the main two guys who fall for her. Both seem kind of plain and uninteresting, which hurts the movie overall. Robert Mitchum appears in a small role that's been overstated in publicity due to his becoming a big star years after this. Horror movie staple Rondo Hatton has a 'blink and you'll miss him' bit as an undertaker. In a sad piece of trivia, this is the last screen appearance of Billy Laughlin, who played Froggy in the Our Gang shorts. Laughlin retired from movies after this and, four years later, was killed when a truck hit him while riding a motor scooter with a friend.It's a flimsy story but it's helped greatly by Simone's sparkling screen presence and a great twist ending. Love the little bits of business involving the gremlin Rumpelstilzken, voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc. The lack of a strong male actor who had good chemistry with Simone is the film's biggest flaw. Still, if you're a fan of hers or just a fan of light comedies from the '40s, you will probably enjoy this one.
preppy-3
Kathie (Simone Simon) is looking for a place to live during WWII and there's a severe housing shortage. By luck she's able to rent the apartment of Johnny (William Terry) when he goes off to the service. Unfortunately he forgot to mention that he passed his key out to many other people who drop in with "hilarity" resulting.Silly wartime comedy. The basic plot is OK but the script is pretty bad. None of the jokes are even remotely funny and the gremlin that keeps popping up (don't ask) is extremely annoying. It all leads to a truly stupid ending which makes little sense. It seems as if the writers just gave up and threw something together. Still I watched the whole thing and was mildly (VERY mildly) amused. The acting was good which helped a lot and James Ellison (as Mike) has a really good time with his role. Also a very young and then unknown Robert Mitchum has a small role. So if you have absolutely nothing else to do you might find it amusing. I give it a 4 and that's mostly for the acting.
moonspinner55
Fairly sharp script by Philip Yordan and John Kafka, from Alice Reeve's magazine story, about a working gal in Washington, DC who, because of the housing shortage created by returning WWII soldiers, accepts an apartment from a Marine on deployment. Unfortunately, he has also given copies of the key to all his buddies on shore leave, though our attractive heroine--Simone Simon, who keeps singing "Frère Jacques" to tell us she's a Frenchie--doesn't seem to mind the unwarranted drop-ins. For some odd reason, a comical Beelzebub (with what sounds like the uncredited voice of Mel Blanc) is injected into this merry mix-up of the sexes, as well as bratty twin boys who keep barging in unannounced to use Simon's bathroom! It all begins well enough before losing steam in the second-half, turning into a screwball romp with pie-in-the-face humor and the type of wrap-up in Night Court which seldom works. Noteworthy for an early appearance by Robert Mitchum (who has a funny bit flipping Simon onto a bed), but the laughs are spread pretty thin. *1/2 from ****
