Without Reservations (1946)

En route to Hollywood, an author becomes smitten with a marine, though he is unaware of her celebrity status and is critical of her best-selling novel.

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

Andrew Solt (screenplay), Jane Allen (novel)

Stars:

Claudette Colbert, John Wayne, Don DeFore

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Claudette Colbert	...	Kit
John Wayne	...	Rusty
Don DeFore	...	Dink
Anne Triola	...	Connie
Phil Brown	...	Soldier
Frank Puglia	...	Ortega
Thurston Hall	...	Baldwin
Dona Drake	...	Dolores
Fernando Alvarado	...	Mexican Boy
Charles Arnt	...	Salesman
Louella Parsons	...	Louella Parsons (as Miss Louella Parsons)

Storyline

Kit Madden is traveling to Hollywood, where her best-selling novel is to be filmed. Aboard the train, she encounters Marines Rusty and Dink, who don't know she is the author of the famous book, and who don't think much of the ideas it proposes. She and Rusty are greatly attracted, but she doesn't know how to deal with his disdain for the book's author.

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Plot Keywords:

train | writer | novelist | mexican | chicago illinois | 

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Taglines:

Uh-oh! Danger Signals ahead!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

13 May 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Thanks, God, I'll Take it From Here

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,683,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$3,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min 101 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jack Benny: as himself. About 22 or so minutes in, when Christopher (Kit) Madden (Claudette Colbert) is in the train station, Jack approaches her and asks her if she is Christoper Madden and when she says yes, he asks her to autograph the book she is holding (which she wrote) and asks her to make it out to Jack Benny. He first approaches with is back to the camera, so it's impossible to see who he is, but when he speaks, his voice is immediately recognizable. He then self-identifies to verify the viewer's suspicions, but not until she signs the book and moves on does he turn around and face the camera for the final verification.

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Goofs

Just before Louella Parsons is seen in the radio studio, an exterior shot shows a building with the name NBC, but when Parsons is at the mic, it is marked ABC.

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Quotes

Kit: Thanks, God. I'll take it from here.

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Connections

Referenced in Hollywood Hist-o-Rama: Claudette Colbert (1962)

User Reviews

Cute post-war road picture; John Wayne can do light comedy!

Most of these reviewers are pretty spot-on, so I can just add my observations: It was a complete surprise to see a John Wayne character deliver a book critique. I was off my pins for a while until he went into his "Why don't you just stop thinking." Movie was like a collision between Ayn Rand and Frank Capra. Still, very breezy, and we enjoyed the contemporary stock location footage of Chicago... with the cute cameo by Jack Benny (taking train back up to Waukegan, no doubt). Also, it presented an interesting peek, though filtered through Hollywood's cockeyed optimism, of a question that was surely on many people's minds. We've saved the world, now how shall we remake it in our image. Surely there were many Kit Masterson writing about what we should do, My theory has long been that the postwar world was most shaped by the GI Bill of Rights, which put a college education and new home within reach of millions of veterans, and created the American middle class, for good or bad. Having lived through the crises of our new century, it's interesting to see people who realized they were standing at other crossroads in history.