PRETTY BABY (1950)

While the game looks lost before the credits finish, hard-hitting Warners hardly the studio for farcical workplace rom-com, a bit of patience and an open mind helps get this one over the finish line with honors.  Bronze, not gold; nothing to sneer at.  Key man undoubtedly writer/producer/Hollywood wag Harry Kurnitz, here with Jules Furthman co-scripting on a good idea about a mid-size NYC ad-agency run by Dennis Morgan & Zachary Scott (in a swell double act) trying to hold onto tyrannical major client Edmund Gwenn’s baby food company.  Enter Betsy Drake as emergency temp secretary, overloaded & under-prepared as new boss Morgan goes at his usual warp-speed.  She’s soon demoted to mimeograph machine operator.  Depressed, she steals a seat on the subway home using a realistic plasticine doll baby when happenstance, and the necessities of farce, place her next to Gwenn.  Unaware of who he is, she mentions the baby is named after him!  After all, in spite of his bad rep, he is paying the bills at her company . . . that is if she’s still got a job there.  At this point, almost all the forced setups are in place (other than hr marital status!), and the film can get down to being unexpectedly bright & funny.  Gaining big laughs at a more than acceptable pace, and not only from Kurnitz.  B’way director Bretaigne Windust, who staged the two top comedies of the ‘40s (ARSENIC AND OLD LACE; LIFE WITH FATHER), but never quite figured out the movies, does his best work on film with flowing tempos rather than hysteria.  Alas, while the three male leads consistently find (and share) the fun with us, Drake (whose short career seemed to be organized by husband Cary Grant*) simply hasn’t the goods to pull this off.  You keep wondering why Warners didn’t reunite Morgan with his co-star from last year’s IT’S A GREAT FEELING, Doris Day.  Perfect for the part.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *With one exception, Drake’s film career ran eight features (1948 - 1958), including two duds with husband Grant (EVERY GIRL SHOULD BE MARRIED/’48; ROOM FOR ONE MORE/’52.  Wife #3 (of 5) to Grant 1949 to 1962, her best film was, of all things, Frank Tashlin’s WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER/’57, against Tony Randall.