Snowed Under

The producer of a play is having trouble with playwright Alan Tanner (George Brent) in that he can't seem to finish the third and final act of a play that is due to go into rehearsals. He taps Alan's first wife, Alice (Genevieve Tobin), to go to Tanner's home in Connecticut to help him finish that play. She shows up, Alan is more than a little glad to see her, and it looks like the play is on its way to getting finished. But then the deputy sheriff (Frank McHugh) shows up with a warrant for Alan's arrest for non-payment of alimony to the second wife, along with said gold-digging second wife (Glenda Farrell) and her lawyer (John Eldridge). Then Alan's current girlfriend (Patricia Ellis) sneaks back into the house, refusing to leave. With the sheriff's car wrecked and a blizzard in progress, all of these people have to spend the night under one roof. Complications ensue.

The way this is set up - playwright whose life has spun out of control due to missing his first wife after having cheated with, married, and divorced a gold digging showgirl but who also has a new girlfriend who is really too young for him but is used to having her way because her family is wealthy - It could have been spun into a Douglas Sirk film if you wanted to take the plot outline and make a melodrama. But like I said, it is obvious from the farcical beginning this is going to be light entertainment all the way and you can pretty much see the end from the beginning. It doesn't outlast its welcome at 62 minutes and is a nice way to pass the time if you are recovering from a nervous breakdown without a serious tense moment in its entire running time.