Would-be sophisticated opposites-attract number, a romantic-comedy for high-powered media mogul Susan Hayward and two-star General Kirk Douglas. He’s up for the Nuclear Agency job she’s guaranteed to someone else. Something’s gotta give. Assignment: wreck his chances (and his reputation) with an embarrassing magazine profile. And Hayward’s got the staff of brilliant media sycophants to do it. Problem No. 1: the General’s no pushover, but a paragon of achievement on and off the battlefield. Problem No. 2: a last ditch effort to trip him up by seduction (pictures to come) backfires when she falls for him. Happy ending? Not quite. Burned before, Douglas rejects the offer. And since hell hath no fury . . . It’s back to your corners for the next round. PHILADELPHIA STORY playwright Philip Barry would have known just what to do with this set up, but he died a decade back, and the trio of scripters on the case are all thumbs in wit, construction and romance. (They do a bit better in the big courtroom finale, but can't stop Hayward from dumping work to become a wifely woman.) Director H.C. Potter’s best films (MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE/’48; THE FARMER’S DAUGHTER/’47) suggest a good fit, but something went off on his career and this proved his last film. It plays like one of those B’way ‘laugh riots’ from last season that quickly die on the big screen.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: *Yet it’s all but essential viewing for film mavens as original announced stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, in what would have been their first film together in nearly a decade, had just begun production with wardrobe tests when Bogart took ill. So there’s a certain morbid curiosity in seeing what Douglas & Hayward do with roles meant for even bigger film legends. Hayward seems to be playing the same script Bacall had. But ain’t got the style. (Check out Bacall in DESIGNING WOMAN/’57 to see the diff. - https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/02/designing-woman-1957.html) But Douglas must have gotten/demanded a near compete rewrite. Note faint echoes of two 1954 Bogart hits (THE CAINE MUTINY; SABRINA) that have grown even fainter. The film would have been a very sad farewell had he lived.
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