Please Believe Me

Silly bauble put over by expert comic players. This was early in Deborah Kerr's Hollywood career before From Here to Eternity moved her to the front ranks and Metro was still trying to figure out what to do with her. Here her English reserve is put to good use as the three men put the big rush on her and she slowly loosens up but always manages to keep them at bay by her brains and dignity. She always was a quite charming comedienne able to elevate material like this.

The film also has several other excellent comic actors who similarly buoy the script with their charm. Peter Lawford wasn't much of a dramatic actor but for suave sophistication with a light touch, which is needed here, few were better. Two wonderful all around actors, Robert Walker and James Whitmore, are paired as a devious couple of wannabe swindlers who seem too goodhearted to be very successful at their work. The weak link, if he can be called that, is Mark Stevens, he's not bad but he lacks the breezy skill and screen presence of his fellow actors.

The film is a minor credit on all the performers resume and one of the endless trifles churned out by MGM at its peak but on that basis it's a very pleasant diversion

What superb direction -- and please, hard as it is, believe this is the same Norman Taurog that basted more Elvis Presley turkeys than any other director. Here, Taurog is the star, slowed down only by an uneven cast and a script that creaked in a couple of places as it flexed its plot. Deborah Kerr is supreme, though, as the sentimental English poppy who is tricked up and down until she buckles on her sound, common sense English ingenuity and carries the day. And she had some carrying to do: co-star Mark Stevens is pure avoirdupois with no sense of the camera. Nice jackets, though. Peter Lawford is perfect as the rich guy with a sense of fun, flaunting his sleek biceps and slim waist in a swimming pool scene he steals with aplomb. The script is a beaut, too, but the way Taurog fills each scene with exposition and shtick is a joy to behold. The lighting is highly skilled 40s workmanship. And check the roulette scene for b/w colour play. But the scene that is all Seven Wonders of Hollywood script- writing rolled into one is the showdown in gangster Quinn's office. Unbeatable for its half a dozen plot twists inside three minutes. Believe me.

When the story begins, Alison (Deborah Kerr) learns she has just inherited a ranch in Texas. She and those around her assume she's wealthy. On the cruise ship across the Atlantic to the States, three men all set after her. Terence (Robert Walker) is a crook and plans on bilking Alison. Jeremy (Peter Lawford) is rich and plans on winning her with his charm. And, finally, Matthew (Mark Stevens) is with the DA's office and falls for her...but also wonders if she might be a crook because she's often with Terence and his 'gentlemans gentleman' (James Whitmore)...a crook Matthew recognizes.

The film started off well and I enjoyed it through the long ocean voyage. But when the film made it to land, it really sank. The plot just got dumb and the film dragged....so much so that I longed for it all to end.

The film Please Believe Me is based on a simple premise, that people who are from Texas have to be rich and vulgarly so in fact. When Deborah Kerr, a most prim and proper English lass inherits property in Texas everyone assumes she inherited something like South Fork. Especially after the English tabloids get a hold of the story and she goes sailing to the other side of the pond to claim her inheritance.

On ship three guys start buzzing around Kerr, playboy Robert Walker, millionaire Peter Lawford, and lawyer Mark Stevens. Walker has a real good reason for wanting to marry her, he's owing big bucks to gangster/gambler J. Carrol Naish so his courtship is tinged with some big desperation.

People will recognize the resemblance with this and the earlier RKO Ginger Rogers classic, Tom Dick, And Harry. If you think you know who Rogers winds up with after seeing that one, you'll be wrong. Please Believe Me also bears strong resemblance to another MGM film with Jane Wyman, Three Guys Named Mike.

Kerr's career in America was zooming into high gear at this time, she was doing a number of classic films like King Solomon's Mines and Edward My Son. This one is funny, but it seems like it was done as an afterthought, all the men and her happened to be free so let's do this property we've had sitting around for a while.

Funny, but Please Believe Me won't be on anyone's top ten.

What's this movie really about? Who are all those characters? What do they want? This movie truly confuses me.

The movie is filled with many characters who are all after one thing; money. They think they can get it from the British Alison Kirbe (Deborah Kerr) who just inherited a livestock ranch in Texas. They all try to win her love for different reason but all money involved. After a while it starts to get extremely confusing who all those characters are, who is with who and what do they want exactly. Terence, Matthew, Jeremy, Vincent, Lucky Reilly, I mean who are all those people? They all look and act so much alike! Who's good, who's bad and for what man does Alison Kirbe eventually fall for and just why him? This movie gives me an headache just thinking about it! At the end the movie become even more confusing when everybody apparently start to scam each other, for whatever reason. The movie had reached a point at that time that I couldn't even care less what was going on and happening to the characters.

Guess the writer thought he was really being clever by putting as many plot twists as possible in the movie. It just doesn't work and makes things extremely confusing to follow. But also the entire execution of the script is below average. The movie doesn't always flow well and it seemed that director Norman Taurog also had no idea what he was shooting. The sequences are just put together after each other but it doesn't make one big well flowing whole piece.

And apparently this was supposed to be a comedy but for a comedy this movie surely does lack some laughs or even humor for that matter. Are the situations supposed to be funny? Are the characters supposed to be funny? Is the dialog supposed to be humorous? Fact is that the movie only just mildly entertains at points.

The movie gets also restrained by its settings. Its for most part set aboard a ship. It provides the movie with all of the usual sequences and settings and therefor also becomes rather formulaic.

Not a recommendable movie, unless you want an headache.

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/