I'm referring to the de-prim and proper-ing of uptight young ladies brought up to either be housewives and mothers, serious business women or spinsters, tightly corseted and bound up tighter than tight can possibly be. Wakely Massachusetts is an 18th Century town where the values have not changed along with the centuries, and even though freedom from the British was won turning a colony into a state, several additonal wars and countless fashion trends have come and gone, it remains as prudish as it was more than a hundred years before. Artist Mark Stevens visits the town to paint a new sign for the White Horse Inn and drips paint onto the hat of prudish librarian passer-by Ann Blyth. When news spreads that Stevens is a painter of fleshy young ladies wearing pretty much nothing and surrounded only by lily pads, his reputation begins to create shock, but Stevens has a surprise up his sleeve: a secret about the town that will turn them on their babbitty and provincial ears.
So just what did Katie do? Well, with handsome Stevens persuading her to go to New York to try and get a song she's written published, she finds she must do what she can to make money to pay off the debts of rascally uncle Cecil Kellaway so she won't have to marry the most boring man in Wakely. This leads to a scene of a trend that started way before then that continues to this day where a poster of Katie ends up all over and alterations are made to it by the poser herself. (Check out pretty much any subway billboard for blacked out teeth, fake mustaches on women and other alterations that can be made to give modern artists something to work with.)
This is pretty much 1930's style screwball comedy with little of a 1950's flavor changing how these types of movies were made 15 years before with stars like Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur and Carole Lombard. Elizabeth Patterson, who played similar roles even back then is Blyth's prudish aunt, not having aged one bit. Jesse White is the local bartender who brings Stevens to town in the first place. There are some amusing moments, but the same old plot twists and devices to keep the leading couple from getting together until the very end. The town of Wakely looks like any ordinary small to medium sized town during the bulk of the 1900's and is filled with the same type of small minded people you've seen in many of these movies. Nothing new, nothing fresh, just moments of amusement, with pretty Blyth escaping from her Veda Pierce mode, yet still far from the singing Rose Marie.
So just what did Katie do? Well, with handsome Stevens persuading her to go to New York to try and get a song she's written published, she finds she must do what she can to make money to pay off the debts of rascally uncle Cecil Kellaway so she won't have to marry the most boring man in Wakely. This leads to a scene of a trend that started way before then that continues to this day where a poster of Katie ends up all over and alterations are made to it by the poser herself. (Check out pretty much any subway billboard for blacked out teeth, fake mustaches on women and other alterations that can be made to give modern artists something to work with.)
This is pretty much 1930's style screwball comedy with little of a 1950's flavor changing how these types of movies were made 15 years before with stars like Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur and Carole Lombard. Elizabeth Patterson, who played similar roles even back then is Blyth's prudish aunt, not having aged one bit. Jesse White is the local bartender who brings Stevens to town in the first place. There are some amusing moments, but the same old plot twists and devices to keep the leading couple from getting together until the very end. The town of Wakely looks like any ordinary small to medium sized town during the bulk of the 1900's and is filled with the same type of small minded people you've seen in many of these movies. Nothing new, nothing fresh, just moments of amusement, with pretty Blyth escaping from her Veda Pierce mode, yet still far from the singing Rose Marie.