The Lady Is Willing *** (1942, Marlene Dietrich, Fred MacMurray, Aline MacMahon, Stanley Ridges, Arline Judge) – Classic Movie Review 9619

Director Mitchell Leisen’s 1942 The Lady Is Willing is a frothy, mostly appealing, Forties-period romantic comedy in which an eccentric Broadway showgirl, Elizabeth Madden (the incomparable Marlene Dietrich effectively cast against type), is so desperate to keep the baby she has found that she is prepared to enter into a marriage of convenience with divorced doctor Cory McBain (Fred MacMurray), her new obstetrician, so that she can adopt.

However, even following this huge sacrifice, the path to motherhood proves to be a bumpy trail, well, for about 90 minutes anyway.

Leisen’s film is a sometimes uncomfortable combination of maudlin melodramatics and scatty humour, but the accent is happily and expertly on the latter. When The Lady Is Willing is amusing, as it often is, it is bright and entertaining, lifted by the vivacious star performances, plus rousing support from Stanley Ridges and Aline MacMahon as Dietrich’s manager and secretary, as well as Arline Judge playing MacMurray’s ex, Frances.

James Edward Grant and Albert McCleery’s screenplay is based on the story by James Edward Grant.

Also in the cast are Marietta Canty, Roger Clark, David James, Ruth Ford, Sterling Holloway, Harvey Stephens, Harry Shannon, Elisabeth Risdon, Charles Lane, Eddie Acuff, Murray Alper, Kitty Kellly, Ernie Adams, Helen Ainsworth, Myrtle Anderson, Georgia Backus, Eugene Borden, Chester Clute, Jimmy Conlin, Lorna Dunn, Lou Fulton, Eddie Hall, Charles Halton, Robert Emmett Keane, Judith Linden, Edward McWade, Frances Morris, William Newell, Paul Oman and Romaine Callender.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9619

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