As Good As It Gets

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Missing believed lost, this is a frivolous but not a very good movie. The fact that it has been discovered means at least you get to see an early role from Jean Simmons.Factory girl Joan Dodd (Patricia Medina) attracts the attention of a wealthy older man Adolphus Pickering (Claud Allister,) her mother encourages this relationship as it means climbing the social ladder and they soon prepare to marry.However on the day of her wedding Joan's boyfriend Jack Fowler (Jimmy Hanley) returns from the army on leave and both of them run away to eccentric relatives in the country with Joan wearing her bridal gown. The relatives think that Joan and Jack have just married.The film is rather ridiculous and dull at times.

Jimmy Hanley comes home from service in the far east to find that his girlfriend is engaged to Claude Allister.Patricia Medina,the girlfriend,has had her arm twisted to marry Claude who owns a factory.On the day of the wedding Hanley takes a train out of London,and Patricia stands up Claude and catches the same train going to her uncle and aunt in Scotland.They want to get married but the uncle is against it.That is until they think the couple have slept together and that Patricia is expecting a baby,which she isn't and they did not sleep together.They go back to London where everything is finally sorted out.This is a truly dire comedy.

My summary headline translated from Italian means "the eyes" and is from page 59 of Patricia Medina Cotton's autobiography which she wrote in 1998.In subject film there are several close ups of her showing how darkly vivid were her eyes.I am drawn to beautiful 1940s actresses with raven black or dark brunette hair such as Vivien Leigh, Hedy Lamarr, Ava Gardner etc. and 16 year old Jean Simmons who also plays Joan's younger sister in this 1945 film.Jean plays the part in a similar way to the wayward young girl she played in "Give us the Moon"(1944).Patricia plays opposite Jimmy Hanley who plays a penniless soldier who is home on a 3 week leave.Meanwhile Joan's social climbing mother wants her to marry an affluent factory owner and tries her level best to sabotage her daughter's romance with Jimmy Hanley.However "amor vincit omnia" in the end. There are some rather sudden edits and a strange uncle & aunt in the screenplay who don't listen to the young pair when they come to visit them so lapsing into farce.Overall I rated it 6/10 as the production values are somewhat economical but I enjoyed seeing Patricia in a lead role.