Tell It to the Judge

The usual misunderstandings and bickering between husband and wife keep things adrift in TELL IT TO THE JUDGE, a comedy that actually sparkles once in awhile but is sometimes too trite to be more than a passable screwball comedy.

The most charming sequence involves Russell and Cummings finding themselves on the doorstep of a lighthouse run by CLEM BEAVER and having to stay the night, sleeping apart, with Cummings forced to spend much of the night shooing away the huge dog that takes a liking to him. But most of the time, the comedy gets bogged down in a series of misunderstandings that could easily have been cleared up if somebody told the truth once in awhile.

ROSALIND RUSSELL, as the judge trying to protect her reputation, does her usual fine job with a comic flair that has her handling fast dialog with her usual dexterity. But in this case, it's ROBERT CUMMINGS who gets some of the best moments, proving how adept he was as the bumbling kind of man who gets caught up in screwy situations.

The breezy script has them fighting throughout before the misunderstandings can be cleared up. MARIE McDONALD and GIG YOUNG are thoroughly wasted in supporting roles, but it doesn't matter because most of the comedy is carried by ROBERT CUMMINGS in one of his best light comedy roles. GIG YOUNG does manage to be amusing in a couple of well played sequences but fortunately had better roles in romantic comedies later on in his career.

Passes the time pleasantly enough with some nice chemistry between Russell and Cummings.

Tell It To The Judge finds Rosalind Russell cast once again as career woman, in this case a lawyer about to be made a federal judge through the machinations of her grandfather Harry Davenport. But Senator Thurston Hall is questioning her character on the grounds of a messy divorce. Shows you how old fashioned this film has become and how terribly dated.

Her ex-husband wants her back and Bob Cummings as the ex does get her back, kind of, sort of. But after that it all gets kind of wild as she uses Gig Young as a foil against Cummings and Bob keeps getting in trouble trying to hide witness Marie McDonald in one of his cases because Bob is a lawyer as well.

What director Norman Foster did well with were some great supporting player performances from a cast of seasoned Hollywood professionals. I think the two most memorable are Clem Bevans as a lighthouse keeper with a side contract from Cupid and Douglass Dumbrille as Cummings playboy client. That one was really a case of reverse casting because Dumbrille is best known for playing slick villains, but I wish there had been more of him as the merry making playboy.

Tell It To The Judge is certainly dated, but while it's not Rosalind Russell's best her fans will not be disappointed.

Rosalind Russell is the Judge in "Tell it to the Judge," a 1949 film also starring Bob Cummings, Marie McDonald and Gig Young. Russell plays Marsha Meredith, a recently divorced woman up for a judgeship, encouraged in her career by her judge grandfather (Harry Davenport). The ex-husband, however, Pete Webb (Cummings) wants her back. The two are still in love. The divorce was basically a misunderstanding - Webb was working with a beautiful blond witness (McDonald) and Marsha mistook it for something else. Even though it puts her career in jeopardy, Marsha remarries Pete. On their wedding night, her grandfather kidnaps Pete so that Marsha thinks he's up to his old tricks. She then takes off and announces to the press that she's married to someone else, and makes up a name. When Alexander (Gig Young), a man she met previously appears, she has him play the part of her husband.

This is a typical screwball comedy centering around the struggle that the independent woman has between being a career person and a wife - and apparently back then, it was one or the other. I thought Russell was fine as Marsha, unlike another reviewer - I've seen her miscast, and I didn't think she was this time - but I agree with another remark the poster made, that Bob Cummings steals the movie. Cummings is thought of as a bland film actor, and perhaps he was. What made him a tremendous television star was his sense of comedy, which he didn't get to use much in films but which was his strength. Here he gets to show it off, and a few years later, he made his mark in television.

A fun movie, not earth-shattering, as films were going through a difficult transition. So apparently were women, and in the '40s, they lost the career battle, only to pick it up again a couple of decades later.

a nice film. seductive for the flavor of "40. and for Robert Cummings. for naive story and the amusing scenes. and, sure, for the unrealistic script. short, a nice film about a love story not original as duel between him and her but for few scenes who are good chances to remain, for long time, memorable. one of the temptations, at first sigh, could be the presence of Rosalind Russell. unfortunately, only at first sigh. because her performance has two sides - too loud, too bizarre in front with the partner work. but , in essence, it could be perceived as a page of history. this is the key of a charming film about the fight in couple.

one from many romantic comedies from the 40's . not extraordinary but nice. and lovely for the seductive performance of Robert Cummings. a film about true love and the situations who transforms it in project. absurd in many scenes, lovely at all, it is the genre of film who seems be open window to a past period. because it has the innocence, the great, the flavor of lost age. Rosalind Russell could be the only challenge for viewer. because it is only a decent option for the role of judge but her rhythm is very different by Cummings' and that gives some fake nuances to the story. an inspired presence - Harry Davenport in a small role. short, a lovely movie. from the heart decade of a magnificent period for cinema.