The Lady Has Plans ** (1942, Ray Milland, Paulette Goddard, Roland Young, Albert Dekker) – Classic Movie Review 10,943

Director Sidney Lanfield’s 1942 Paramount Pictures black and white film The Lady Has Plans stars Paulette Goddard as newswoman Sidney Royce, who is confused with a tattooed lady criminal and attracts all the wrong kinds of attention, in this oddball, muddled, rather slow-moving wartime comedy spy-thriller.

Crooks have tattooed secret plans on the agent’s back and she sets off to Lisbon to sell them. But Sidney arrives there first, along with Baron Von Kemp (Albert Dekker)’s Nazi agents and US operatives out to prevent them getting the plans.

The reliable Ray Milland does his best to support a hesitant Goddard as the investigator Kenneth Harper on her trail in Lisbon. Both stars are fine, and the support cast is strong, but Harry Tugend’s screwball script (from a story by Leo Birinsky) never really amounts to anything much and the movie needs a tighter hand on the helm than director Lanfield brings.

Also in the cast are Roland Young, Margaret Hayes, Cecil Kellaway,, Addison Richards, Edward Norris, Charles Arnt, Hans Schumm, Hans von Morhart, Genia Nikolaieva, Gerald Mohr, Lionel Royce, Thomas W Ross, Arthur Loft, Paul Phillips, Warren Ashe, Yola d’Avril, Jean Del Val, George Dobbs, Lee Shumway, Martin Garralaga, Hans Joby, Arthur Loft, Francisco Marán, Nestor Paiva, Richard Webb and Louis Mercier.

It is shot at Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood.

The Lady Has Plans is directed by Sidney Lanfield, runs 77 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Harry Tugend, based on a story by Leo Birinsky, shot in black and white by Charles Lang, produced by Fred Kohlmar, scored by Leo Shuken and Leigh Harline, and designed by Robert Usher and Hans Dreier.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,943

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