Expected more

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

As the poster for this movie reveals, it was based on a very successful Broadway comedy. And that comedy must have been a door- slamming farce of the French variety played around a hotel room, such as you find in many of Feydeau's comedies. It doesn't have a farce's face pace, though, and that's a real problem.There is lots of talent here, so that's not the problem. It's just that it is sometimes misused, or underused. Having Jane Wyman play stupid, for example, seems like a real waste, and not a particularly successful one. I suspect the real problem was the direction. If this worked on Broadway, and evidently it did, it must have moved faster and been funnier. This was James V. Kern's first shot at directing a movie, and he evidently didn't know how to bring off a farce on the screen.There are other problems as well.I don't know who thought to put Alexis Smith and Ann Sheridan, who look fairly alike anyway, in this movie and then coif them with the same sort of hairdos, but it was not a great idea.Alan Mowbray preparing his radio talk in the middle of the mayhem is a flat steal from Sheridan Whiteside in *The Man Who Came to Dinner*, and the comparison doesn't do this movie any favors. There's nothing wrong with this movie. It's just not memorable.

Directed by James V. Kern from the Joseph A. Fields play, adapted by Kern and Sam Hellman with additional material from Wilkie Mahoney, this wartime comedy features a terrific cast in yet another story about how the crowded living conditions in our nation's capital during World War II made strange bedfellows and played havoc with relationships.It all starts when Jack Carson and Jane Wyman get married and try to begin their honeymoon in a Washington, D.C. hotel whose lobby is overrun with people needing a room. Despite their reservation, they discover that their room's bathtub is already occupied by Ann Sheridan's character, who happens to be ditzy Wyman's old chorus line pal. Naturally she's allowed to stay as is their other gal-pal Alexis Smith, who's married to a lieutenant (actress Smith's soon to be husband Craig Stevens).Things really heat up when Sheridan's husband's (John Ridgely) ex- wife (Irene Manning) shows up, and a gun-toting female Russian army sergeant (Eve Arden) and Carson's lecherous boss (Charles Ruggles) join the mix, further delaying-frustrating Wyman-Carson's consummation.Alan Mowbray appears as a radio correspondent. Donald MacBride, a judge and Regis Toomey, an FBI man also appear.

Many of the reviews here seem to be posted by people who have no clue as to the time period of history which this film is set in. When you watch an older contemporary film you need to be able to watch it with the mindset of a viewer seeing it in a theater at it's release. If you can't relate to 1944, you don't get this film. If you do it's a true gem.Warner's threw it's best female leads at this, Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman and Alexis Smith (sans Bette Davis), capped off with Eve Arden in a memorable role, added Jack Carson and the reliable John Ridgely, stirred in Charlie Ruggles, Alan Mowbry and Regis Toomey in brief support and a supporting cast rated A+ It is a manic comedy, but if you don't get the political and historic tongue in cheek it falls flat. If you do, sublime!

Newly-weds Viv (Jane Wyman) and Arthur (Jack Carson) arrive at the bridal suite in a hotel. However, they are not alone. Newly-weds Edna (Anne Sheridan) and Julian (John Ridgely) are already in the room and they end up sharing the apartment. Enter newly-wed Nan (Alexix Smith) who also ends up staying. Then comes Russian Natalia (Eve Arden) .... guess what ... she stays too. During the proceedings, several other men appear. It turns out that none of the women are actually legally married for various reasons and the film takes us to the conclusion where everyone is happy.I found one line of repeated dialogue funny. It comes from Eve Arden's character when she says "I wooold like a feesh". Apart from that one line, there is no humour in this noisy, unfunny film. Here is an example of what you can expect: ...The doorbell rings and people shout at each other, then the phone rings followed by more shouting, then someone appears and starts shouting, then everyone talks at the same time...oh no, now we've got a comedy character coming in with comedy music....back to the shouting and screeching at each other. This basically goes on for 1 hour and 40 minutes. If this is your kind of humour, then you will enjoy the film. I didn't.The film contains very irritating characters and I gave up caring about what was going on. One of the film's final punchlines comes when Tom (Craig Stevens) is recounting his tale of soldier heroism which culminates in a situation in which he had to call out the name of his friend "Harry Kerry" and the Japanese perceived this as an order to commit "Hari Kiri"....Groan.... You may want to commit "hara-kiri" yourself after sitting through this.