THE LADY TAKES A SAILOR (1949)

Not quite a screwball comedy, but very silly--it makes BRINGING UP BABY seem like Ibsen. Jane Wyman plays a consumer advocate who runs a "Consumer Reports"-type company. Her motto is, "Truth always." In the midst of some important negotiations involving grant money, she gets lost during a storm and is saved by Dennis Morgan, a scientist working for the government on a top secret mission involving a weird submarine/tractor contraption. Wyman tells her strange rescue story to the press but they fail to believe her and Morgan, because of the secrecy surrounding his job, doesn't speak up to save her reputation, so her career winds up in jeopardy. The supporting cast includes William Frawley and Allen Joslyn, and best of all, Eve Arden, criminally underused as Wyman's best friend, the kind of part she could play in her sleep. Plot loopholes abound and get bigger and more ridiculous as the movie goes on. The worst part is that, as in so many movies of the time, the female ends up chucking her career to land a man. Wyman seems uncomfortable in this trifle, and Morgan looks tired, just past his mid-40's prime.