La sposa rubata

This was Patricia Neal's film debut, and in the first fifteen minutes I had to wonder if somebody was going to haul out the vaudeville cane, get her by the neck, and take her offstage. She was completely over the top. But then she gets more believable and settles down. On the surface it is light romantic fluff - Mary (Neal) is waiting for her soldier, John (Ronald Reagan), to come home from war. If you find the first fifteen minutes taxing, stick around. It gets much better.

Very quickly this plot becomes what was intended to be a good deed that turns into a tangle of problems. You see, John ran into his war pal Fred's (Jack Carson's) best girl in England. They would have been married, but Fred could never find her after the war and she was presumed dead. The only way that John could figure to get Fred's best girl -Lilly - into the US was to marry her himself, bring her to the US, get a quickie Reno divorce, and then Fred and Lilly can be married. The problem is, John never bothered to run this idea by anybody else - specifically his fiancee, Mary, and even Fred himself! Very quickly John finds his good deed overcome by events. Let's just say that in Fred's case he made peace with the fact that Lilly was dead and "life goes on". Specifically life is going on when John returns with Fred's wife in labor at the hospital. Plus Mary's parents - her dad is a Senator (Edward Arnold) - want John and Mary to be married in a week!

How will this all work out? Watch and find out. Ronald Reagan just fills the screen with that beaming smile of his. Jack Carson was always great as the guy who would like to be the villain but is just not smart enough to be anything but a patsy. Here though, he is just the nervous victim of circumstance. There are lots of twists and turns in this one and there isn't a boring moment in it. Highly recommended and a great surprise.