Practically Yours

When Fred MacMurray kamikazes his plan against a Japanese ship, his recorded last words seem to be about walking in the park with his girl Peggy. AThis is assumed to be Claudette Colbert's character; she tours making speeches about how she didn't know, buy war bonds. MacMurray is found, and reunited with his love, only to admit that he was speaking of his dog, Piggy. The two agree to keep up the pretense until his leave is over in a couple of weeks.

MacMurray is a wolf, but a moral one, and Miss Colbert is apple-cheeked and naive in the fifth of their seventh pairings. Gil Lamb is the dreary guy Colbert is scheduled to marry. Despite the occasional swipe at the media to build any story to match the current narrative, director Mitchell Leisen seems more interested in telling the story efficiently than playing it for comedy. Despite a fine cast that includes Cecil Kellaway, Robert Benchley and Rosemary Decamp, it turns into a rote and uninteresting romantic comedy; all of the humor seems to involve the lap dog.