Surprise-partie

Kathie (Simone Simon) is looking for a place to live during WWII and there's a severe housing shortage. By luck she's able to rent the apartment of Johnny (William Terry) when he goes off to the service. Unfortunately he forgot to mention that he passed his key out to many other people who drop in with "hilarity" resulting.

Silly wartime comedy. The basic plot is OK but the script is pretty bad. None of the jokes are even remotely funny and the gremlin that keeps popping up (don't ask) is extremely annoying. It all leads to a truly stupid ending which makes little sense. It seems as if the writers just gave up and threw something together. Still I watched the whole thing and was mildly (VERY mildly) amused. The acting was good which helped a lot and James Ellison (as Mike) has a really good time with his role. Also a very young and then unknown Robert Mitchum has a small role. So if you have absolutely nothing else to do you might find it amusing. I give it a 4 and that's mostly for the acting.

When Kathie (french born Simone Simon) takes an apartment.... she realizes she's not the only one with a key to the joint. Johnny let Kathie sublet it, but forgot to tell her about his many friends wtih keys! Some fun special appearances; right at the beginning, Mel Blanc does the voice for the gremlin when Kathie spills the salt. And watch for the awesome Grady Sutton as George, the new, henpecked husband a few minutes later. Froggy Laughlin from Our Gang is the punk kid who comes in to use the bathroom. The landlord on the front porch is Chester Clute... he had minor roles in SO many things a parade of characters comes marching through... some are nice. Some aren't so nice. Johnny the marine is played by Bill Terry.... died young at 48. No cause of death given. We were still in the dark days of the hays film code, but they really pushed it to the limits... maybe they cut Monogram Pictures some slack, since it was a war-time flick, highlighting the housing issue at the time. When Kathie starts to fall for some of John's friends, it could be a problem! Kind of a light hearted war time bit. Directed by Joe May. Similar to Rafter Romance, from 1933, and Walk Don't Run from 1966.

When Simone Simon rents an apartment from William Terry, she thinks everything will be properly respectable. After all, he's a soldier with his marching orders, and she'll have the place all to herself for weeks. The only trouble is, William forgot to tell her, he also lent out a few copies of his apartment key to his fellow soldiers. . .

It sounds silly, and parts of it are, but Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore is hilarious! It's a cross between The Apartment and Young and Willing, with fast-paced quips and even faster situational comedy. Whenever you're in the mood for a cute black-and-white comedy about a situation of errs, rent this one. It's so funny, and even though Simone's accent is a little thick, she keeps up with the banter. "I'm Mike," James Ellison says. "I'm Jack," Chick Chandler says. "I'm going!" Simone answers.

Chester Clute and Minna Gombell, the married couple who own the apartment complex, are treated to quite a show as several uniformed gentlemen are seen coming and going from Simone's apartment-and in 1944, that just wasn't okay! Every time there's a new visitor looking for the old tenant, Simone informs then, "Johnny doesn't live here anymore!" and no matter how many times she keeps repeating the title, it never stops being funny. Plus, an extra funny side plot is that three of the visiting soldiers fall in love with her, and each think she's exclusive-imagine their surprise when they finally see other men coming and going from the front door!

If you need any more incentive to rent Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore, it features a young, insanely adorable and handsome Robert Mitchum. He plays a soldier named Jeff Daniels who's desperate to use the apartment because his wife's coming into town to help him enjoy his 48-hour leave. Described as looking "like a movie actor", he takes full advantage of every minute of screen time he's given; it's no wonder this was the last year before he started getting first billing!

"Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More" is a bad film...so bad that I really had to struggle to keep watching it. I noticed that most of the reviews were reasonably good with scores mostly in the 4-6 out of 10 range...but I truly hated the movie and would never watch it again even if I was paid to do so!

The film is a VERY quirky comedy and this soon becomes obvious when a gremlin (a very popular character created during WWII) appears periodically throughout the film. This mischievous jerk (voiced by Mel Blanc...would would explain why it sounds just like Bugs Bunny) decides to mess with Kathie (Simone Simon). It arranges it so she moves into an apartment that some jerk used before her--and he apparently gave out copies of his keys to EVERYONE...neighbors, guys, women and strangers. This causes problems for Kathie...though if she'd just replaced the lock all this would have become moot.

The film's problem is the writing. Most of it is simply not funny and too often the film creates quirky situations and characters instead of just making them interesting of truly creative. The gremlin gag wears VERY thin very quickly....but so do most of the funny plot twists. It's a shame, as some odd but interesting character actors appeared in this one and I wanted to enjoy it. Imagine...Rondo Hatton and Froggy from the "Our Gang" shorts in the same movie!

This film is simply a chore to watch and became tiresome...very quickly.

On a train, a "Gremlin" (the unmistakable voice of Mel Blanc) portends bad luck for sleepy defense worker Simone Simon (as Kathie Aumont). Arriving in Washington, DC, she discovers her intended roommate has married. Needing a place to stay, Ms. Simon sublets an apartment from passerby William Terry (as Johnny Moore), a Marine leaving for duty. Simon isn't alone in the apartment for long as Mr. Terry gave out keys to several of friends. The men are stricken with Simon's beauty, especially sailor James Ellison (as Mike Burke), who stops by for a bath. Future star Robert Mitchum also pays a visit. Director Joe May gets Simon into several sexy positions and they really arouse interest in this whimsical farce.

****** Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore (7/8/44) Joe May ~ Simone Simon, James Ellison, William Terry, Chick Chandler