No Time for Love **** (1943, Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ilka Chase) – Classic Movie Review 5706

Ideally matched delightful stars Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray re-team for another expert romantic comedy, in which upper-class socialite magazine photographic reporter Katherine Grant (Colbert) is working on an assignment about a Hudson River subway tunnel being dug by hunky labourer Jim Ryan (MacMurray).

Despite her elegant poshness, Katherine likes the cut of sweaty, shirtless Jim’s jib and falls for him, but, of course, there’s many a slip on the road to love. After his helping her gets him suspended from his job, then she hires him and he becomes her helper during his suspension.

With witty dialogue, animated playing, and polished handling by director Mitchell Leisen, what more can you ask from a vintage 1943 soufflé?

Also in the cast are Ilka Chase, Richard Haydn, June Havoc, Marjorie Gateson, Bill Goodwin, Paul McGrath, Murray Alper, Faith Brook, Rod Cameron, Ken Christy, Jerome DeNuccio, George Dolenz, Jack Gardner, Bill Goodwin, Alan Hale Jr, Robert Herrick, Robert Homans, Mitchell Ingraham, Charles Irwin, John Kelly, Fred Kohler Jr, Arthur Loft, Morton Lowry, Patrick McVey, Frank Moran, Paul Phillips, Lorin Raker, Lillian Randolph, Keith Richards, Jack Roberts, Willard Robertson, Jack Shay, Mickey Simpson, Walter Soderling, Woody Strode, Ben Taggert, Dave Wengren, Pat West, Rhys Williams and Grant Withers.

The screenplay is by Claude Binyon and Warren Duff, from a story by Robert Lees and Fred Rinaldo.

June Havoc, the sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, died on 28 March 2010, aged 97. Their story is told in Gypsy (1962).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5706

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