Without Reservations

Claudette Colbert plays a best-selling novelist on her way to Hollywood, where her book is being made into a movie. On the train she meets two Marines (John Wayne, Don DeFore). She immediately sees Wayne as the ideal man to play the lead character from her novel. Unfortunately for her, Wayne's read the novel and hates it, so she keeps her identity a secret as she travels with the two men to California.

Colbert is right at home playing a role similar to ones she had played a few times before. So it's no surprise she is good here. Nor is it a surprise that Don DeFore is good as Wayne's sidekick. But what may come as a surprise for many watching this is just how good John Wayne is at a light comedy role. Anne Triola is also lots of fun as Consuela Callaghan, described as a "beetle" by Wayne & DeFore. For what they mean by that you'll have to watch and see. Beautiful Dona Drake has a small part but she's always stunning to look at. Several celebrity cameos, including Cary Grant. The only time John Wayne and Cary Grant appeared in the same film, albeit not in the same scene. Very charming and funny romantic comedy, the second half of which is in the It Happened One Night vein.