Looking for a change of pace from all the action films that he had been making. Raoul Walsh was able to get Jack Warner the head of Warner Brother's studios to let him make this lightweight but very charming comedy with James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland. The plot has Cagney playing a man taking a dental correspondent course by mail all the while pining for Rita Hayworth who is the titular character, a neighborhood beauty.
Cagney gets involved with perennial character actor Jack Carlson who also has a thing for Hayworth, but ends up being the fall guy for Carlson's construction business which has been using inferior materials to build homes. One thing leads to another and Carlson manages to marry Hayworth much to Cagney's disappointment. However Cagney finally sees the light and ends up marrying the charming de Havilland. Finally realizing he got the better deal when it came to a spouse.
The film is really a nostalgia wallow. The entire film score seems to be made up of old songs from the 1900's. The photography by the legendary James Wong Howe helps set the mood of the story and Raoul Walsh probably the last guy in the world you would think of when it came to directing a romantic comedy does his usual excellent job staging the scenes.
The film clearly appealed to an audience that was looking to romanticize a simpler time. All of the performances are good and Warner Brothers didn't cheapen out on the production. This is the kind of film that the "Hollywood Dream" factory could turn out when it was firing on all cylinders.
The screenplay was by Julius J. Epstein and Philip Epstein a couple of real pros. They wrote Casablanca, the movie versions of Arsenic and Old Lace and The Man Who Came to Dinner. The running time is 97 minutes.
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