Rings on Her Fingers (1942)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Rouben Mamoulian

Writers:

Ken Englund (writer)
Robert Pirosh (story)

Release Date:

20 March 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

she kissed him out of his life's savings... but the poor guy loved it...

Plot:

Susan Miller works behind the girdle counter in a department store and dreams about the beautiful clothes and glamour she can never hope to have...

Plot Keywords:

Con Artist | Department Store | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Henry Fonda	...	John Wheeler
Gene Tierney	...	Susan Miller / Linda Worthington
Laird Cregar	...	Warren
Shepperd Strudwick	...	Tod Fenwick (as John Shepperd)
Spring Byington	...	Mrs. Maybelle Worthington
Frank Orth	...	Kellogg
Henry Stephenson	...	Colonel Prentiss
Marjorie Gateson	...	Mrs. Fenwick
George Lessey	...	Fenwick Sr.
Iris Adrian	...	Peggy
Harry Hayden	...	Train Conductor
Gwendolyn Logan	...	Miss Calahan
Eric Wilton	...	Butler
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	Newsboy
Sarah Edwards	...	Mrs. Clancy

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Soundtrack:

Yo, Ho, Ho, and a Bottle of Rum

A departure for Mamoulian

Gene Tierney wants "Rings on Her Fingers" in this 1942 comedy starring Henry Fonda, Laird Cregar and Spring Byington. Tierney is a shopgirl drafted by Byington and Warren to help them con rich men out of their money. One of their marks is Fonda, with whom Tierney falls in love. Problems arise, and that's putting it mildly.

Mamoulian loved scripts that contained characters with dual identities such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Mark of Zorro, so "Rings on Her Fingers" must have appealed to him. It has Tierney, a New York salesgirl posing as an heiress, Fonda, an accountant who at first gives the impression he's a rich man, Cregar, posing as a yacht owner, and Byington, posing as Tierney's wealthy mother.

I liked this charming comedy, but I have to take issue with calling it screwball. It's played too straight. Fonda creates a wonderful character - a sincere, caring person who wants to live life in the present and not live as others - lock up their money and, in so doing, lock up their lives. His internalized approach to acting did not lend itself to comedy. Tierney is gorgeous, and a good actress, but comedy wasn't her thing. Picture the airport scenes with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and you get the point.

Laird Cregar is wonderfully bombastic and funny as the conniver Warren - what a loss to filmdom that he died so young; and Spring Byington does a great job as his partner.

Henry Fonda never forgave Darryl F. Zanuck for forcing him into a seven-year contract for allowing him to do The Grapes of Wrath; though Mamoulian was a great director, I think Fonda probably felt misused here. Opposite a pro like Stanwyck, he fared in comedy much better. Tierney is lovely, though.

Good film.