No Time for Comedy (1940)

Playwright Gaylord Esterbrook scores a hit with his first Broadway play, both with the critics and with leading lady Linda Paige. He and Linda are happily married until a patroness of the ... See full summary »

Director:

William Keighley

Writers:

Julius J. Epstein (screen play), Philip G. Epstein (screen play)

Stars:

Rosalind Russell, James Stewart, Genevieve Tobin

Cast

Complete credited cast:
James Stewart	...	Gaylord Esterbrook
Rosalind Russell	...	Linda Paige Esterbrook
Genevieve Tobin	...	Amanda Swift
Charles Ruggles	...	Philo Swift (as Charlie Ruggles)
Allyn Joslyn	...	Morgan Carrell
Clarence Kolb	...	Richard Benson
Louise Beavers	...	Clementine
J.M. Kerrigan	...	Jim
Lawrence Grossmith	...	Frank (as Lawrence Grosmith)
Robert Greig	...	Robert
Frank Faylen	...	Cab Driver
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bonnie Gaye Cowen

Storyline

Playwright Gaylord Esterbrook scores a hit with his first Broadway play, both with the critics and with leading lady Linda Paige. He and Linda are happily married until a patroness of the arts convinces Esterbrook to forget about comedy and concentrate on writing a tragedy. The end result nearly destroys his career and his marriage.

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Plot Keywords:

screwball comedy | playwright | writing | manhattan new york city | male female relationship | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

Guy with a Grin

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original New York production starred Katherine Cornell as Linda and Lawrence Olivier as Gaylord Estabrook.

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

Morgan Carrell, the Director: Clementine, are you sitting on my hat?
Clementine, Actress in Show: [gets up to look] So I am. I completely covered it. Well, its a small hat.
Morgan Carrell, the Director: A sombrero would have met the same fate.

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Connections

References Mädchen in Uniform (1931)

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Soundtracks

Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Opus 98: 1st movement
(1885) (uncredited)
Music by Johannes Brahms
Played on a phonograph at Amanda's house

User Reviews

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.