Sans réserve

"Without Reservations" is a cute but canned knock-off of "It Happened One Night" (also with Colbert) -- a road picture pitting the sexes against each other and then against the elements of a screwball universe. Though very flimsy in plot structure, Colbert and Wayne end up as interesting foils. Colbert puts out with her usual impeccable timing, urbane wit and unique, feminine charm. It strikes one that Wayne is not left behind in her proverbial comedic dust, a testament to the plain fact that he was actually a fine actor masquerading as a big lug, and moreover capable of playing comedy.

For any fellow "reactionaries" there is some good dialogue delivered by Wayne against Progressivism and in favor of freedom, which, except for its brevity, might as well have been lifted directly from a James Edward Grant script. Unfortunately these ideas (symbolized by the Wayne character) are categorized as the non-thinking position, but nonetheless they are involved in the overall plot resolution.

In all, the film means well but doesn't deliver, and the actors take in the slack where possible.

Claudette Colbert and John Wayne star in this lightweight comedy about an authoress who may not know enough about men to write about them. Her first book is a smash hit, but John Wayne scrutinizes it a bit, when he meets Claudette, not knowing she wrote it. He and his pal Don DeFore make a nice pair of guys to hang out with, and he and Claudette have good chemistry and repartee, but somehow the last 30 minutes goes off course and keeps this from being a very fulfilling movie experience. They're all good company and they have quite a few madcap escapades together, but things just don't fall into place as they should and the film tends to wander and go on too long. But if you get a chance to see Without Reservations, it's enjoyable and undemanding entertainment for almost two hours.

Hello, I have loved this movie since I was 10 in 1947. I love John Wayne and Claudette Colbert in everything they do. This is such a cute, fun and romantic comedy it makes a person want to really "be there". It reminds me of "It happened One Night" with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, from a few years earlier. I love that movie, also.

Such fun! Thank you for listening. Florence Stockton Reno, Nevada

Cute comedy about a novelist (Claudette Colbert) who meets a soldier (John Wayne) and realizes she loves him. There's more to it than that, but that's the bare bones of the plot. The movie moves quickly, is VERY funny and who knew John Wayne could do comedy so well? Colbert beautiful and charming (as always). There's also a few appearances from stars of that era. Bright, breezy...well worth seeing.

Most of these reviewers are pretty spot-on, so I can just add my observations: It was a complete surprise to see a John Wayne character deliver a book critique. I was off my pins for a while until he went into his "Why don't you just stop thinking." Movie was like a collision between Ayn Rand and Frank Capra. Still, very breezy, and we enjoyed the contemporary stock location footage of Chicago... with the cute cameo by Jack Benny (taking train back up to Waukegan, no doubt). Also, it presented an interesting peek, though filtered through Hollywood's cockeyed optimism, of a question that was surely on many people's minds. We've saved the world, now how shall we remake it in our image. Surely there were many Kit Masterson writing about what we should do, My theory has long been that the postwar world was most shaped by the GI Bill of Rights, which put a college education and new home within reach of millions of veterans, and created the American middle class, for good or bad. Having lived through the crises of our new century, it's interesting to see people who realized they were standing at other crossroads in history.