No Time for Love (1943)

Director:

Mitchell Leisen

Writers:

Robert Lees (story) and
Frederic I. Rinaldo (story) ...

Release Date:

January 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson river.

Plot Keywords:

Tunnel | Sandhog | Tunnel Construction | Beautiful Woman | Photographer

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Claudette Colbert	...	Katherine Grant
Fred MacMurray	...	Jim Ryan
Ilka Chase	...	Hoppy Grant
Richard Haydn	...	Roger Winant
Paul McGrath	...	Henry Fulton
June Havoc	...	Darlene
Marjorie Gateson	...	Sophie

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Darlene: Aw, gee, you're wonderful!
Jim Ryan: Just keep that in mind.

Screwball comedy has MacMurray and Colbert floundering in mud...

Physical comedy of the kind we call screwball is evident throughout NO TIME FOR LOVE where Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray play a couple from opposite social circles. She's a magazine photographer, he's a sandhog working in a tunnel beneath the Hudson River. She's attracted to him at first sight but doesn't seem to know it--and we know he's going to fall for her after a bunch of mishaps happen.

The mishaps are piled one on top of another in typical screwball fashion with nobody making much sense. Certainly MacMurray's character is about as obnoxious and arrogant as any leading man Colbert was ever set up against, and she acts pretty irresponsibly in that tunnel where she gets up to her neck in trouble and mud--lots of mud.

But somehow, it's all very watchable with a cast that knows exactly how to play this sort of thing. Claude Binyon had a way with writing slight romantic comedies and he gives Colbert and MacMurray some bright lines to work with. Others fortunate enough to get some good moments are Richard Haydn, Ilka Chase, June Havoc and Rod Cameron. If you look closely you can spot Tom Neal in the background as one of the sandhogs.

It doesn't make a lot of sense when you stop to think about it, but it's fun while it lasts, thanks mainly to MacMurray and Colbert who can do this kind of romp effortlessly.

Funniest bit: As MacMurray exits in final scene carrying Colbert like a caveman over his back, Richard Haydn says: "I'll drop by for supper tomorrow night." "Not tomorrow night," says Colbert. Wink. Wink.