No Time for Comedy (1940)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

William Keighley

Writers:

S.N. Behrman (play)
Julius J. Epstein (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 September 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A country boy takes over Broadway . . . until he gets into heart-trouble!

Plot:

Playwright Gaylord Esterbrook scores a hit with his first Broadway play, both with the critics and with leading lady Linda Paige...

Plot Keywords:

Broadway | Writing | Playwright | Jealousy | Minnesota

Cast

James Stewart	...	Gaylord 'Gay' Esterbrook
Rosalind Russell	...	Linda Paige Esterbrook
Charles Ruggles	...	Philo Swift (as Charlie Ruggles)
Genevieve Tobin	...	Amanda 'Mandy' Swift
Louise Beavers	...	Clementine, Actress in Show / Linda's Maid
Allyn Joslyn	...	Morgan Carrell, the Director
Clarence Kolb	...	Richard Benson
Robert Greig	...	Robert, Benson's Butler
J.M. Kerrigan	...	Jim, the Bartender
Lawrence Grossmith	...	Frank, Actor in Show (as Lawrence Grosmith)
Robert Emmett O'Connor	...	Desk Sergeant
Herbert Heywood	...	Joe, the Doorman
Frank Faylen	...	Cab Driver
James Burke	...	Desk Sergeant
Edgar Dearing	...	Sweeney, a Policeman

Also Known As:

A Guy with a Grin (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #6279)

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The original play by S.N. Behrman opened in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 31 March 1939.

Goofs:

Continuity: At one point in the movie, Gaylord is at his home and discovers Amanda Swift's phone number is written down on a phone list in his wife's handwriting. His wife, Linda, had just left with Morgan Carrell for dinner at the Swift's home. Then the scene shifts to Amanda Swift's home and Gaylord is there.

Quotes:

Clementine, Actress in Show: I saw your last picture, Mr. Carrell.
Morgan Carrell, the Director: Yes?
Clementine, Actress in Show: Oh, yeah.
Morgan Carrell, the Director: What'd ya think?
Clementine, Actress in Show: [sighs] yeah.

Soundtrack:

Bridal Chorus

Limp But Not Without Interest.

Successful comic playwright Jimmy Stewart decides that the times he is living in call for political drama instead of laughs. His stage star wife disagrees and must win him back from the clutches of the pretentious matron who has him in her thrall. Though one would think that the tall, lanky duo of Stewart and Rosalind Russell would be perfect together, they disappoint. They manage some charm and chemistry in the early parts of the film, but both surrender to stridency later on, and this movie has none of the fast pace or glossy sheen a sophisticated comedy set in Manhattan should have.

What is interesting here is the cultural mirror of the times. The amusing portrait of a cynical Manhattan is still recognizable, and the thesis that in bad times there is nothing more important than making people laugh is the same one Preston Sturges explored in his overrated SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS a year or so later. Though this film doesn't mix comedy and message drama as well as Sturges did, however imperfectly, the penultimate scene here is intriguing. Russell is prepared to marry the droll plutocrat whose wife has stolen Stewart from her, but he lets loose with a string of invective that probably accurately reflected the 'America First' Republicanism of the time. Russell decides that she'd rather be with a man who hates the fact that the free world was being taken over by fascists than by a man who sees all dictators with cynical detachment.

This film is heavy and crude where it should be light, and the implied sexual sophistication of the plot is not directed or played with the right tone at all. But this misfire will still manage to be of interest to some.