I saw this about thirty years ago, late at night and have never seen it revived. This is understandable, for despite a good cast and director (Michael Curtiz, of all people)it is not a great comedy but a passingly acceptable one.
Jane Wyman is a woman whose reputation for honesty is important regarding her job on a magazine that is run by Robert Douglas (here not playing one of his politically ambitious historical villains for a change). She is enjoying a day on a boat when she is sunk by an experimental craft being tested by Dennis Morgan. Morgan tries to keep her from exposing this little secret, but she does not see that a government project is involved - only her credibility. So Morgan and the U.S. government do everything they can think of to get her branded a liar. And Wyman fights back to save her reputation.
One highpoint (noted in another of these reviews) is the brief appearance of William Frawley to present an award to Wyman. She expects it to be in recognition of her magazine work. Instead, it turns out to be an award from "THE LIAR'S CLUB" for best lie of the year.
The film's weakness is that it probes a subject gingerly - probably because it was the first time anyone ever considered it. The subject is government use of "misinformation" to hide activity that it does not wish to advertise at all. In the years since 1949 we are fully aware that all levels of government use misinformation - that they deny events happened or brand witnesses as liars, or frame the witnesses with evidence or other unknown/unexpected witnesses. But here it was limited to Wyman who fights without an assist by her magazine, and Morgan, who does what he can to discredit her, but finds he is falling in love with her.
As an original in tackling this government vice, I mark that the movie is a "6" for being original. But on it's own, based on comic entertainment value, it is lucky to be a "5".
Jane Wyman is a woman whose reputation for honesty is important regarding her job on a magazine that is run by Robert Douglas (here not playing one of his politically ambitious historical villains for a change). She is enjoying a day on a boat when she is sunk by an experimental craft being tested by Dennis Morgan. Morgan tries to keep her from exposing this little secret, but she does not see that a government project is involved - only her credibility. So Morgan and the U.S. government do everything they can think of to get her branded a liar. And Wyman fights back to save her reputation.
One highpoint (noted in another of these reviews) is the brief appearance of William Frawley to present an award to Wyman. She expects it to be in recognition of her magazine work. Instead, it turns out to be an award from "THE LIAR'S CLUB" for best lie of the year.
The film's weakness is that it probes a subject gingerly - probably because it was the first time anyone ever considered it. The subject is government use of "misinformation" to hide activity that it does not wish to advertise at all. In the years since 1949 we are fully aware that all levels of government use misinformation - that they deny events happened or brand witnesses as liars, or frame the witnesses with evidence or other unknown/unexpected witnesses. But here it was limited to Wyman who fights without an assist by her magazine, and Morgan, who does what he can to discredit her, but finds he is falling in love with her.
As an original in tackling this government vice, I mark that the movie is a "6" for being original. But on it's own, based on comic entertainment value, it is lucky to be a "5".