Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

JohnHowardReid Director: JAMES V. KERN. Screenplay: James V. Kern, Sam Hellman. Additional dialogue: Wilkie Mahoney. Based on the stage play by Joseph A. Fields. Photography: Ernest Haller. Film editor: Folmar Blangsted. Art director: Hugh Reticker. Set decorators: Clarence Steenson. Music: Adolph Deutsch. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Costumes designed by Milo Anderson. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Montages: James Leicester. Special effects director: William McGann. Technical adviser: Nicholas Kobliansky. Dialogue director: Jack Gage. Assistant director: Phil Quinn. Sound recording: Stanley Jones. Producer: Mark Hellinger.Copyright 23 November 1944 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Hollywood: 30 August 1944. U.S. release: 25 November 1944. U.K. release: 30 July 1945. Australian release: 14 March 1946. Sydney opening at the Empire (on a double bill with Rhythm Round Up). 9,279 feet. 103 minutes.COMMENT: In addition to its short running time, another signal that a movie is being sold by the studio as a "B" in a particular territory is that it has sat on the shelf for a considerable period. This one cluttered up the Warner warehouse in Australia for over 18 months before slotting in for a predetermined two-week engagement in an unfashionable theater at the very periphery of the borderline separating the city from its working-class suburbs. The trio of Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman and Jack Carson were advertised as the stars, but the movie drew less than average business. And no wonder! Here we are back in overcrowded wartime Washington, but this is no "More the Merrier". This time we are in for about a hundred minutes of boring verbosity, leavened with two or three minutes of mild humor. Neither the director nor the writers make more than a token attempt to disguise the film's stage origins. Just about the entire movie is set in the Hotel Grayson, and ninety-five per cent of the action unfolds in the one apartment. Characters enter and leave as if they were on a theater stage. Even the end-of-act curtain ensembles are left intact. And as if there wasn't a more than adequate supply of dialogue already, Mr. Wilkie Mahoney has supplied pages and pages of additional chatter. Jack Carson and Jane Wyman are forced to perform a continuous Burns and Allen act, but with even weaker comebacks! In fact, the Jane Wyman character is just too stupid for words! All the players attempt to conceal their weak material by mugging vigorously throughout. Only Charlie Ruggles succeeds. Eve Arden bears a particularly unfortunate accent burden, as she's atrociously miscast as a Russian freedom fighter. Kern's directorial style can only be described as actor-indulgent, audience-neglectful. Production values rate high, but who cares?

jacobs-greenwood Directed by James V. Kern from the Joseph A. Fields play, adapted by Kern and Sam Hellman with additional material from Wilkie Mahoney, this wartime comedy features a terrific cast in yet another story about how the crowded living conditions in our nation's capital during World War II made strange bedfellows and played havoc with relationships.It all starts when Jack Carson and Jane Wyman get married and try to begin their honeymoon in a Washington, D.C. hotel whose lobby is overrun with people needing a room. Despite their reservation, they discover that their room's bathtub is already occupied by Ann Sheridan's character, who happens to be ditzy Wyman's old chorus line pal. Naturally she's allowed to stay as is their other gal-pal Alexis Smith, who's married to a lieutenant (actress Smith's soon to be husband Craig Stevens).Things really heat up when Sheridan's husband's (John Ridgely) ex- wife (Irene Manning) shows up, and a gun-toting female Russian army sergeant (Eve Arden) and Carson's lecherous boss (Charles Ruggles) join the mix, further delaying-frustrating Wyman-Carson's consummation.Alan Mowbray appears as a radio correspondent. Donald MacBride, a judge and Regis Toomey, an FBI man also appear.

Neil Doyle I was so busy watching ANN SHERIDAN looking so great that I had a hard time keeping track of the zany plot. She really had a flair for comedy, even this kind of absurd farce, that it's a shame she was never given better scripts. JANE WYMAN plays the sort of dumb blonde that made Marilyn famous (only she's a brunette here)--but she too is saddled with overly dumb remarks that even JACK Carson has a hard time swallowing. And ALEXIS SMITH proves that behind that frozen puss she has a real sense of humor. Catch the scene where she stoops to telling a tale of woe in a Brooklyn accent! Incidentally, her boyfriend in the film is the man she eventually married in real life--CRAIG REYNOLDS.I don't fault the actors. CHARLES RUGGLES is actually quite good as a businessman attracted to Wyman. And character actor JOHN RIDGELY gets to play a prominent supporting role as Sheridan's fiancé with a good deal of amiable charm and skill. For these reasons alone, the film is worth watching despite the over-baked ham.But beware of most of the farce, which is directed with the finesse of a sledgehammer bearing down on all the lines, emphasized by big close-ups of the cast in wide-eyed reaction shots in case we don't get the point.It's another in a number of wartime films (WWII) emphasizing the overcrowded hotel conditions in Washington, D.C. from the very opening shot--similar to "The More the Merrier" and "Government Girl."Terribly overdone, downright hammy performances from everyone including EVE ARDEN as "a Russian Sergeant York" who shoots her rifle from the terrace. Jane Wyman's character gets annoying after the first few remarks and from then on I kept my eyes on Sheridan. Her reactions are priceless, if a bit over-the-top.Trivia note: MARK STEVENS has only a couple of lines to say during one of the crowded hotel scenes as Reynolds' Army friend and NATALIE SCHAEFER has no lines at all as a woman holding a baby.

David (Handlinghandel) Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith, and Ann Sheridan start this with good chemistry among themselves. It seems to be "The Women," with a few men and some genuine kind feelings among the participants. Some of the men could be done without but Charlie Ruggles is always a joy.They continue to work together but things bog down. It's hard to believe that Wyman is as dumb as she's meant to be. And talk about wastes: What in the world made anyone cast Eve Arden as a Russian military officer, uniform, dark wig and all? Her sparklingly dry humor would have fit in perfectly with the situation but she is hidden under layers of camouflage. The Russian she's given is pretty questionable, too.Irene Manning is fun as a viperous ex-wife of one of the three leads' husband and/or husband-to-be.Wartime Washington was crowded but so is this movie. Too much going on sinks this vessel. Give us"The More The Merrier"?