Review of Times Square Playboy

Gene Lockhart steals the show in this speedy comedy as a judgmental out of towner who comes to the Big Apple for pal Warren William's wedding and finds his choice of a bride (June Travis) to be unsuitable because of her profession as a nightclub singer. After meeting the bride and spending the evening with her and her family, he goes off on a tirade denouncing them as opportunists. Of course, he doesn't have all the facts, and his assumptions not only come between him and William (who as the title character really isn't a playboy) but William and Travis. There's plenty of memorable dialog here even if the plot is slight and the outcome predictable, and the entire cast gets opportunities to deliver. Reynolds' real life wife Katherine plays his on-screen wife here and is plenty feisty as her character stands up to her husband for over-reacting as usual and trying to be the voice of morality as he reveals himself to truly be a hypocrite. Barton MacLane is very funny as Williams' "Man Friday", standing out in several scenes where the two of them wrestle as Reynolds prepares to make his entrance. This is one of the few Warner Brothers comedy that comes with a much necessary life lesson, that assumptions and judgments can make problems where they are not needed, and that without an open mind, the brain is closed to being truly a decent human being.