There's only one movie capable of beating the immortal comedy The Shop Around the Corner out of the Hot Toasty Rag Award for Best Comedic Screenplay: Third Finger, Left Hand. As much as it pained the members of the board to deny the former, Third Finger, Left Hand is so hilarious and so clever, it couldn't have been bested by anything. What's the final sign of a terrific screenplay? You can imagine anyone in the characters and it would be just as good as the final result. Indeed, when you watch this nearly forgotten classic, you can imagine Rosalind Russell and Robert Montgomery, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, and Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in the romantic leads. Each of them would have delivered the lines and made your sides split. Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas made the cut and immortalized the lines on celluloid, but Lionel Houser got the Rag Award for his writing.
Myrna plays a career woman intent on keeping her job. Back in 1940, a single woman in the workforce was looked at as an easy target for a pick-up, so to keep her boss off the scent, she lies after getting promoted to Editor-in-Chief and says she's a married woman. She receives love letters from her husband, and puts off anyone asking after his whereabouts by saying her hubby's travelling in South America. Her boss respects her work, the boss's wife doesn't try to get her fired since she's no longer a threat, and her ardent suitor, Lee Bowman, is kept at a safe distance. Her partner-in-crime is her pal at work, Felix Bressart, the magazine's photographer. He's the only one who knows the truth, and he's the one who writes her love letters!
It sounds like a pretty good set-up, but of course there's a conflict: Myrna meets Mel. Mel is a starving artist from Ohio on a trip to New York City to show off his paintings to an art gallery. He and Myrna hit it off, but when he finds out she's married, he gets very upset. When he finds out her husband doesn't even exist, he gets very, very upset. What does he do about it? I won't tell you, but I will give you a hint: As a stranger in town, if he pretended to be somebody else, everyone would believe him. . .
This movie is so funny, I've probably seen it close to fifty times and it still makes me scream with laughter. Mel and Myrna's comic timings are impeccable, and their clever, witty banter is unforgettable. Felix doesn't have much screen time, but his lovable sidekick persona is so funny you'll find it hard to believe the majority of his movies were dramas. Lee is sweet and harmless, and you'll hope nothing bad happens to him along the way. Donald Meek is a self-important art dealer who says with a grin, "I can be just as unethical as you can," without realizing what he's revealing. Bonita Granville, transitioning from her youth, plays Myrna's kid sister, Halliwell Hobbs is the adorable butler who's dating the cook, and Raymond Walburn plays the clueless dad. Jeff Corey is only in one scene, but I thought he was really Swedish and wasn't an actor! What a surprise to see him other movies with no accent; he was in over a hundred through the decades. And Ernest Whitman, who steals the show in the last segment of the film, plays a train porter with hidden talents as a lawyer. Ernest is quick and steps right in as if he's been a part of the entire movie, and he gets to deliver the last line, one of the best lines in the whole movie.
From start to finish, this movie is delightful. If you've never heard of it, you've got to rent it. You'll be quoting it in no time, making jokes about Wapakoneta, and you'll be singing right along to the Ohio jingle. "What's round on the ends and high in the middle? Think think think think; what's the riddle? Round on the ends and high in the middle: it's Ohio."
Myrna plays a career woman intent on keeping her job. Back in 1940, a single woman in the workforce was looked at as an easy target for a pick-up, so to keep her boss off the scent, she lies after getting promoted to Editor-in-Chief and says she's a married woman. She receives love letters from her husband, and puts off anyone asking after his whereabouts by saying her hubby's travelling in South America. Her boss respects her work, the boss's wife doesn't try to get her fired since she's no longer a threat, and her ardent suitor, Lee Bowman, is kept at a safe distance. Her partner-in-crime is her pal at work, Felix Bressart, the magazine's photographer. He's the only one who knows the truth, and he's the one who writes her love letters!
It sounds like a pretty good set-up, but of course there's a conflict: Myrna meets Mel. Mel is a starving artist from Ohio on a trip to New York City to show off his paintings to an art gallery. He and Myrna hit it off, but when he finds out she's married, he gets very upset. When he finds out her husband doesn't even exist, he gets very, very upset. What does he do about it? I won't tell you, but I will give you a hint: As a stranger in town, if he pretended to be somebody else, everyone would believe him. . .
This movie is so funny, I've probably seen it close to fifty times and it still makes me scream with laughter. Mel and Myrna's comic timings are impeccable, and their clever, witty banter is unforgettable. Felix doesn't have much screen time, but his lovable sidekick persona is so funny you'll find it hard to believe the majority of his movies were dramas. Lee is sweet and harmless, and you'll hope nothing bad happens to him along the way. Donald Meek is a self-important art dealer who says with a grin, "I can be just as unethical as you can," without realizing what he's revealing. Bonita Granville, transitioning from her youth, plays Myrna's kid sister, Halliwell Hobbs is the adorable butler who's dating the cook, and Raymond Walburn plays the clueless dad. Jeff Corey is only in one scene, but I thought he was really Swedish and wasn't an actor! What a surprise to see him other movies with no accent; he was in over a hundred through the decades. And Ernest Whitman, who steals the show in the last segment of the film, plays a train porter with hidden talents as a lawyer. Ernest is quick and steps right in as if he's been a part of the entire movie, and he gets to deliver the last line, one of the best lines in the whole movie.
From start to finish, this movie is delightful. If you've never heard of it, you've got to rent it. You'll be quoting it in no time, making jokes about Wapakoneta, and you'll be singing right along to the Ohio jingle. "What's round on the ends and high in the middle? Think think think think; what's the riddle? Round on the ends and high in the middle: it's Ohio."