Susan Slept Here (1954)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Frank Tashlin

Writers:

Steve Fisher (play)
Alex Gottlieb (play)

Release Date:

26 November 1954 (Belgium)

Genre:

Comedy | Music

Tagline:

She slept in his bed...wore his pajamas - THEN SHE REALLY TOOK OVER!

Plot:

Comedy about a struggling Hollywood scriptwriter who, one Christmas Eve, receives a very unexpected present - juvenile delinquent Debbie Reynolds.

Plot Keywords:

Oscar Statuette | Beautiful Woman | Based On Play | Title Spoken By Character | Character Name In Title

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Dick Powell	...	Mark Christopher
Debbie Reynolds	...	Susan Beaurgard Landis
Anne Francis	...	Isabella Alexander
Alvy Moore	...	Virgil, Mark's Gofer
Glenda Farrell	...	Maude Snodgrass
Horace McMahon	...	Sergeant Monty Maizel
Herb Vigran	...	Sergeant Sam Hanlon
Les Tremayne	...	Harvey Butterworth, Mark's Lawyer
Mara Lane	...	Marilyn, Mark's Neighbor
Maidie Norman	...	Georgette, Mark's Maid
Rita Johnson	...	Dr. Rawley, Harvey's Shrink
Ellen Corby	...	Coffee Shop Waitress
Benny Rubin	...	Sylvester the Janitor
Barbara Darrow	...	Miss Jennings, Dr. Raleigh's Secretary
Sue Carlton	...	Coffee Shop Cashier

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #16848) | Sweden:Btl

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

This picture marked the last of Dick Powell's 58 feature-film appearances (plus one voice over) between 1932 and 1954. A recording artist since 1927, Dick's final two commercial sides on a Bell single were tunes from the movie score: the title song (music and lyrics by Jack Lawrence) and the Oscar-nominated "Hold My Hand" (music and lyrics by Jack Lawrence and Richard Myers). Neither ditty was sung by Mr. Powell in the film. However, he danced a bit in a pantomime segment dreamed by Debbie Reynolds.

Quotes:

Susan Beaurgard Landis: Now Mark, what more do you want in a wife, I'm a doll and you know it.
Mark Christopher: I'm too big do play with dolls. I'm ready for the armchair, television, a small dog to bring my slippers.
Susan Beaurgard Landis: Arf! Arf!

Movie Connections:

References Peter Pan (1924)

Soundtrack:

Susan Slept Here

Exceptionally funny

After the lamentably unseen The First Time, the next Frank Tashlin movie showing at my local revival theater was Susan Slept Here. I was sure that SSH could not live up to the high standard set by the first film. But it did, and surpassed it. Personally, I think it's one of my five or ten favorite comedies. Dick Powell (whom I've always loved) stars as Mark Christopher, a Hollywood screenwriter who hasn't had any success after winning an Oscar (which, incidentally, serves as the narrator). He once had an idea to write a serious picture (as opposed to the frivolous comedies that he has specialized in) about a juvenile delinquent, which he mentioned to a policeman friend of his. Well, on Christmas Eve, that policeman, along with his partner, shows up at Mark's door with a 17 year-old juvenile delinquent as a present. Her name is Susan (Debbie Reynolds, whom I also love, almost desperately!), and the policeman proposes that Mark hang around her for a couple of days, you know, for research. He's in a hurry to take his girlfriend (the gorgeous but ferocious Anne Francis, who would star in Forbidden Planet a couple of years later) out on a date, but that comes to an abrupt halt when Susan answers Mark's phone. You know the schtick: Mark starts out annoyed at Susan, but they grow attached. The age difference is brought up frequently enough so it doesn't get too creepy. Mark is 35 ([laugh] - maybe when Powell was dancing with Busby Berkeley) and Susan is 17 (Reynolds was 22 at the time, but she is probably the only actress who could get away with playing a teenager until she was in her 40s). For a very long time Mark doesn't respond to Susan's crush. The only major flaw in the film - and even it's acceptable - is Mark's motivation in marrying Susan. He does it, he says, to save her from six months jail time (she has been arrested for assault on a sailor and vagrancy). It's not very believable, but it's also not that big a deal.

The two leads are exceptional. This was Powell's last movie. After it, he retired to television, although I only call it retirement as a movie snob; he was enormously, enormously successful in the new medium. He's more or less the straight man here. He has a particularly great scene where he watches a 20 year-old movie for which he wrote the dialogue on television. As the actors speak their horrendous dialogue, we watch Powell as he mouths their words, both a man's and a woman's (it's a break-up scene), with an embarrassed look in his eyes. If Powell is good, Reynolds is masterful. She's such an odd actress, not conventional in any way. She had her own niche in Hollywood. Her acting is doll-like with its jerky movements and huge facial expressions. That isn't a criticism whatsoever. I have never seen her in a straight drama (the closest is How the West Was Won); I'd imagine she acts differently, or she never made one. In comedies like this and Singin' in the Rain, she's absolutely perfect. There is not a moment when she's on screen during which I was not laughing myself to tears. The film also has one of the greatest supporting casts ever. Anne Francis I've already mentioned. I very much appreciate the fact that the writers didn't make her character abominable; Susan Slept Here, although it's not a musical, is very much a direct descendent of An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain. One criticism I have of Singin' is that Jean Hagan's villain is too cartoonish (or at least I would have that criticism if Hagan weren't so damn funny in that movie). Francis in SSH is played sympathetically for the most part. Glenda Farrell plays Mark's secretary, Maude, an alcoholic who answers the telephone on Christmas morning: "You talk, I can't." Alvy Moore is Mark's friend and assistant, Virgil, who can crack wise with the best of them. Horace McMahon and Herb Vigran play the two cops, and Les Tremayne plays Mark's lawyer, who is obsessive about his therapy sessions. Red Skeleton has a wordless but amusing cameo as Maude's teenage sweetheart. 10/10.