User Reviews

I saw this movie for the first time on TCM, during their run-up to the 2005 Oscars. I expected quaint, cute, pleasant. What I got was much more: strong writing and characters, believable performances, a sure hand of the director who knew how to make comedy work on-screen, an interesting story with plot twists. Even after more than six decades, this comedy still works well. Today's comedy directors and writers could learn a lot from this film: how to make the situations and characters work without shoving in the audience's face. Sam Wood gives the audience for this film some credit for intelligence, and lets the strength of the script and actors emerge. For the first time, I realized just what fine actors are Charles Coburn and Jean Arthur.

Ever since I saw Jean Arthur in "The More The Merrier", I fell in love with her. What beauty, what talent, what a VOICE!

This is one of her better films. More reminiscent of a Capra film. It's the working class vs the wealthy uncaring class. This goes beyond that though. It tells the tale of a rich man(Coburn) who hears of a revolt at one of his businesses. He wants it stopped and he wants heads to roll!!

When he thinks the investigation is not going to his liking, he decides to go undercover himself. Now this is where the REAL story starts. Now he is on THEIR ground and he sees for himself what these working class "pigs" are really like. They are just people. People with little money and big hearts, who just want a better life.

Everyone is wonderful in this film. Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn work terrific together as always(no wonder they did three movies together). I was surprised to see Robert Cummings in a major role back in 1941. I didn't know he was a star before Television.

The only real disappointment I had with this film was Edmund Gwenn. I could not believe it. The man that IS Santa Claus played a mean rude little man. EGAD!!

Seriously though, This is a MUST SEE for those who love good hearted comedies. Just makes you feel so good. An 8 out of 10.

This is a wonderful story from the days immediately preceding America's entry into WWII, when the values that made America great were on display in the movies. A powerful department store owner, played by Charles Coburn, gets a job as a lowly clerk in his own store, in order to ferret out the workers who are trying to organize a labor union. He gradually gets caught up in the lives of the clerks in the shoe department (co-stars Jean Arthur, Bob Cummings, Spring Byington, Edmund Gwen) who accept him as just a poor, older man, and his view of things begins to shift. There are some excellent scenes in this movie, especially one in which Coburn is arrested while on a day at the beach with his fellow workers, and has to be kept out of jail by Cummings' bravado. Of course, everything works out well in the end, because this movie was made in the days when good was destined to triumph over evil.

I saw "The Devil and Miss Jones" two nights ago. What a joy Jean Arthur was to watch. Truly, the teaming of Charles Coburn and Jean Arthur needs to be celebrated. It has been ignored for too long! They play off each other as Powell and Loy, Laurel and Hardy, and Tracy and Hepburn did. Jean Arthur was never lovelier (as a brunette!). Robert Cummings never had a showier role nor one in which he displayed bite and a strong, leading-man presence. The script accurately conveys the times in which it was written. The scenes of how it was for people in large cities to work and entertain themselves during the Depression is priceless in its accuracy, a time capsule showing future Americans the Great Depression and its legacy. The playing of Arthur, Coburn, Cummings, and Spring Byington as well as the editing give "The Devil and Miss Jones" a playful, lyrical, yet sassy tone. A true rarity for a film with this type of plot to pull off yet it did, brilliantly. This film deserves greater critical and public reevaluation.

Norman Krasna, was one of the best screen writers in the movies of the period. Sam Wood shows his ability to direct this excellent cast in one of the most satisfying comedies about the distinctions between the moneyed classes and the working stiffs they employed.

If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading now.

J.P. Merrick, is a millionaire who has investments all over New York. It is to his amazement he sees himself burned in effigy in front of the department store he has forgotten he owns. Merrick, like all people in business don't want to appear to be exploiting the workers, but this is too much! He must put an end to it.

In disguising himself as a salesman, he goes directly where the problem seems to be coming from, the shoe department. There he meets Mary Jones, who immediately feels Tom Higgins, his assumed name, is a man that is going through a rough time in his life. Mary feels pity when she realizes he doesn't know a thing about salesmanship.

In spite of everything going bad for him as a shoe salesman, Tom sticks to his new persona. He only meets kindness from all the people he is trying to fire. Merrick, by the end of the first full day at the store feels the strain of being on his feet all the time; we watch him soaking his feet in hot water, aided by his butler, George. In the process of gaining knowledge about the trouble makers, Merrick becomes human. He gets to realize how wrong he has been about a life he has lived so alienated from.

"The Devil and Miss Jones" is a movie that will delight anyone wishing to have fun. Of course, this is a film that depends totally in the two principals, Jean Arthur, who plays Mary Jones, and Charles Coburn, who as J.P Merrick/Tom Higgins shows why they were about the best actors working in the cinema in the 30s and 40s in Hollywood. Not only did they bring such class to whatever they played, but they are totally convincing. Ms. Arthur was a natural and so was Mr. Coburn.

The rest of the cast is extraordinary. A young Robert Cummings is perfect in his role as the union man. Spring Byinton, an actress that appeared in many films, is a charming Elizabeth, the woman that steals Merrick/Higgins heart. In her first scene with Mr. Coburn, she sits in the park bench to have lunch and he has nothing to eat. She gives him one of her tuna popovers and clarifies for him she paid 12 cents for the can! What times! In minor roles, S. Z. Sakall is George, the loyal butler. Mr. Sakall is a joy to watch, no matter what picture, or what character he is playing. Also, Edmund Gwenn, who probably stayed behind to played Santa Claus for the store, makes an incredible Hooper, the man in charge of the shoe department.

Thanks to Sam Wood's inspired direction this is a film that will not cease to please.

The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), directed by Sam Wood, is a comedy with a conscience. Believe it or not, in 1941, moviegoers could accept the fact that rich people cared more for profits than they did for their employees. When department store employees try to organize for better pay and conditions, the store owner hires detectives to find the organizers so that they can be fired. When the detective doesn't appear motivated enough, the owner takes on the job himself. He goes undercover and pretends to be a new employee.

On his first day on the job, Mr. Merrick (Charles Cobern) is befriended by Mary Jones (the incomparable Jean Arthur). This part was written with Ms. Arthur in mind, and she is perfect for it. She's kind, tough, romantic, and compassionate.

Robert Cummings does a creditable job as Mary's sweetheart, and Spring Byington is perfect as an older woman who is looking for love, but will only consider someone who's not rich. S.Z. Sakall plays Mr. Merrick's Butler. (A year later, he was cast as the waiter in "Casablanca.")

Although the movie is, naturally, somewhat dated, it's still worth seeing. The scene in which the fabulously rich Mr. Merrick is left--literally--without a nickel for a telephone call is fascinating. The basic message--the poor will only get their rights if they organize--is as true today as it was 66 years ago.

This movie will work well on DVD, but we in Rochester were privileged to view a beautifully restored print. Thanks go to UCLA for restoring the film, and making the print available. Thanks also are due to the Rochester Labor Council for showing this movie as part of the Rochester Labor Film Series.

Charles Coburn was a funny man. I wish had more movies with him in them, as he usually makes me laugh. He did here, and this movie was on it's way to a rating of "10" when it bogged down midway through and never really regained momentum. It did have a nice sentimental ending, though.

Coburn, meanwhile, was outstanding as the super-rich owner of a department store who goes "underground" as a shoe salesman in his store to find out the cause of worker unrest. Then romance takes over the story: Coburn and Spring Byington and then Bob Cummings and Jean Arthur and the story loses a lot of it comedy touch and its zip.

Overall, the film still exudes charm and Coburn, despite third billing, IS the star of this film. I'm sure a number of fans of this film are disappointed it still isn't out on DVD.

The Devil and Miss Jones may be the best Frank Capra film he didn't make and one of the last depression era comedies making it one of the last of its kind - a screwball comedy dealing with the conflict between social classes. The film presents a fascinating and shocking look at the treatment of workers in a department store during the final days of the depression, themes which would become obsolete with the US entry to the war.

The owner of the department store is J.P. Merrick (Charles Coburn). With this character, the movie shows the rich aren't all bad people at heart. They're just cut off from common people and their reality, unaware of the common man's struggle and surround by advisors who think they know what's best. Heck, J.P. doesn't even remember what stores he owns! He brings himself down to his employee's level by going undercover as a store worker in order to identify those who are trying to form a union. J.P. has the advantage that no one in the public knows what he looks like as his picture hasn't appeared in a newspaper for 20 years, also no internet in 1941 would also be an advantage.

I don't how if the treatment of the workers is realistic or exaggerated; just how relevant is this movie today? In one scene a store supervisor criticises a new worker (unaware it's the store's owner going undercover) in a bullying nature for their poor intelligence level test score. In another scene the department store addresses their workers at the end of the day as they stand in unison like a military dictatorship, threatening to fire anyone and preventing them from working in any department store in the city if they speak out against the company or associate with anyone who does. Next to many of the workers have a secret union meeting on top of a building, like a band of rebels coming together to take down an oppressive regime. The leader of the cause played by Robert Cummings states the company is letting employees go after 15 years when their salary is higher than a new employee and that they expect a quarter lifetime of loyalty to the one employer. At one point Jean Arthur even speaks during one emotionally rousing speech about how working "25 years for only two employers" as unacceptable - I know those days have certainly passed us. The art deco department store itself is a beauty and offers a nostalgic look at the days before automation, when people had to be employed to do every task without the aid of computers.

Robert Cumming's character is an activist rallying against the establishment; the type of person who would protect his country against its government. The type of character you don't see often in classic films and likely would have been labelled a communist during the McCarthy era. In one pivotal scene at a police station he takes on abusive, power hungry cops and escaping charges by reciting the Constitution and then the Declaration of Independence at lightning fast speed to remind the officers of their rights; a real badass. A scene like this just goes to show you how people are unaware of their rights.

Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn are a superb and unconventional pairing. Yet you get two great romance plots for the price of one - old love and young love; Charles Coburn & Spring Byington and Jean Arthur and Robert Cummings. Like Frank Capra's works, The Devil and Miss Jones is full of incredibly intimate, powerfully sentimental moments as two characters talk to each other as the rest of the world ceases to exist, such as the beach scene with Arthur and Cummings or the moment on the train with Coburn and Byington are all incredibly moving. Yet the intimate moment which strikes me the most is Arthur and Coburn's discussion on love. Jean Arthur's monologue on love feels so true; stating that two people can look at each other and see something way deep inside that no one else can see and distances her love from that seen in movies of love songs. She doesn't think herself or her boyfriend are the greatest people in the world, yet doesn't know if she'd care to live or die if she would never see him again. When this moment begins the sound effects of people talking in the background becomes increasingly faint and then loud again as other people enter the scene - it's perfect. In terms of just pure comedy, just look the scene in which Jean Arthur dives across the table; an explosion screwball comedy in its purest form.

Some very talented people involved here in 'The Devil and Miss Jones'. Jean Arthur is not to everybody's tastes, she is mine though and she has given plenty of great performances. Robert Cummings is reliable though doesn't always get meaty enough material to stand out properly. Charles Coburn, Spring Byington and Edmund Gwenn could always be relied upon to steal their scenes. Really enjoy romantic comedies and also have liked some of Sam Wood's other films, namely 'Goodbye Mr Chips' and 'A Night at the Opera'.

'The Devil and Miss Jones' is one of Wood's most entertaining, most heart-warming and likeable films in my mind. Have seen a few comparisons to the work of Frank Capra, a good thing as Capra did have a distinctive style and speaking as someone that has really liked and more a lot of his work, and it is not hard to see why. There is a very feel good vibe without descending into corn or mawkishness. Anybody that loves any of the cast members should love 'The Devil and Miss Jones', it is a great representation of both.

Very little to criticize 'The Devil and Miss Jones' for in my view actually, it does bog down in the pace a little in the middle but actually the pace did pick up.

Also thought that the ending was a little on the silly side, but at least it also managed to be interesting and didn't wrap things up over-neatly.

From the start all the cast are on great form. Arthur is immensely charming and her characteristic sass is done with brio without being overdone. Cummings looks as if he's enjoying himself too and matches Arthur in the easy to like department, didn't think he was bland at all. Coburn is as hilarious and human as ever and Byington wins the heart of the viewer without trying too hard. Gwenn is endearing in a role that suits him well. Wood keeps the sentimentality at bay while allowing the cast to have fun.

Had no problem with the script, which is sophisticated and beautifully balanced and has snappy wit, adorable sweetness and it doesn't get preachy or heavy. The story is heart-warming with a truly sparkling first half in particular and the chemistry between the actors is always natural and not strained or robotic. The message avoids being heavy-handed and actually came over as sincere, it's an honest message too and actually has relevance today.

In conclusion, great. 9/10

I don't cry easily at films, but this one got me going (at the end). The faded black and white film quality takes nothing away from it's delight. One of the joys of this movie is that it takes it's time, but it's NEVER boring. In some ways, it's a simple tale- a company chief executive goes incognito as a salesman in his own store to ferret out trouble-makers among the staff. The consequences are humorous and ultimately delightful. The lead Charles Coburn was actually considerably older than he was supposed to be in the film, indeed he only started his film career in his 60s, but one would never guess at his acting inexperience. I was stunned to discover that Jean Arthur was aged about forty in the film- she looks the part of a much younger woman. Don't miss any opportunity you get to watch.

It's so full of good, common sense, compassion, wit and joy, that I can barely believe it. How depressing that this masterpiece should never be shown on TV (to my knowledge). It is not the first time that Norman Krasna has drawn my attention. This man is a genius. He writes with a total, unflagging self-assurance and perfection. This movie just cannot be improved upon. There are really no faults in it. The humor is funny without being demeaning, there is not the slightest mistake in taste or judgment. What makes it even more astonishing is that it was made during war time, when patriotism tends to cause people to become sentimental. This movie doesn't spare its country one whit. It does not include some "bad apples" among the workers. On the contrary, it implies that those who are usually referred to as bad apples are in fact the good ones! This movie is very much in the spirit of Frank Capra, and his rooting for the little man, but it outdoes Capra at his own game. There is more Capra in this movie than in all Capra movies put together. Krasna doesn't just root for the underdog, he fights his battles and he WINS! (1990 diary entry).

The Devil And Miss Jones was the first film of which there were to be many in which Frank Ross produced and his wife Jean Arthur starred for RKO. The team did do one other, A Lady Takes A Chance, and Ross did some writing for The More The Merrier, but the Ross/Arthur marriage was breaking up and no more films followed.

That's a pity because The Devil And Miss Jones is a sparkling comedy about a very rich man who goes incognito among his employees to see how they live.

Of course that's not what Charles Coburn's original intent. Coburn has a passion for anonymity the same way Donald Trump loves seeing his name in the papers. When this reclusive millionaire gets picketed at his home by workers from a department store that's one of his minor holdings, Coburn isn't happy. He decides to find out just who the leftwing subversives are and takes a job as a shoe salesman in said department store.

What he does find that is that the place is run by a gang of petty tyrants, using and abusing the authority of his name. He also gets to know the union heads who in this case are a young couple, Jean Arthur and Robert Cummings.

But what really made The Devil And Miss Jones sparkle was the October romance of Coburn and Arthur's friend Spring Byington. They just might qualify as the oldest romantic coupling in film history. But they were a delightful pair. I'll bet when Coburn was young the women threw themselves at him like crazy. But as he got older and cynical it wasn't what he wanted, a trophy wife was not on the list. Some real love was just what Coburn needed.

The Devil And Miss Jones got two Oscar nominations, for Best Original Screenplay for Norman Krasna and for Best Supporting Actor for Charles Coburn. He lost the race to Donald Crisp for How Green Was My Valley which really was a supporting role. Coburn in fact is in the lead, he has more screen time than either Arthur or Cummings.

Jean Arthur was a wise woman, she could have pulled star rank with the producer and gotten more time, but she knew that Coburn was the one who made the film.

This was a timely film then and still topical now. Organized labor was gaining the right to collective bargaining under the Wagner Act in those years and the papers were full of places like this department store finally gaining a union shop. It's something that labor still fights for though on different fronts today.

As a political film, The Devil And Miss Jones is very much relevant today. As a comedy it's still very funny as Charles Coburn learns that real love is something all his money can't buy.

The tone of this movie is peppy and fast. Not a dull moment. The comedy is sophisticated and yet of the belly-laugh variety. This movie has entertained me and my friends over the years and is as refreshing now as it was the first time. Charles Laughton, Spring Byington, S.Z. Szakall, Bob Cummings, Edmond Gwenn (booooooo) and of course Jean Arthur - what a cast!!!!! This is a representative of the golden era of social-conscious entertainment - movies with a message - the New Deal is there and there is hope for the overworked and underappreciated. The employees who devote their lives and skills to the firm in order to give a better life to their children - this was the era preceding the "me, me, and only me" baby boom where everything was given to the kids without question. I can relate to this after constantly listening to the stories of my parents who were of the same generation as those employees. All gone now, and the memories remain.

Curiously mistitled comedy casts Charles Coburn as grouchy, unhappy billionaire who infiltrates one of the department stores he owns posing as an employee. He wants to get to the bottom of worker complaints, but makes friends instead. Strange screenplay strays all over the place: instead of nowhere scenes such as Coburn and pals being grilled at a police station, we should be learning more about this tycoon and what makes him tick. As Coburn plays him, he's just an old softy waiting to be loved. Jean Arthur gives one of her better, less brash performances as a sales clerk who befriends him, Spring Byington is sweet as an elderly employee, but Robert Cummings as the local hothead is all smoke and no fire.

Comments about movies like this from the Great Depression years frequently allude to radical or left-wing political themes. Such views miss the point. Producer Sam Wood went on to espouse a decidedly anti-communist stance in his capacity as a spokesman for the movie industry before the House Unamerican Activities Committee just before his death in 1949. A quick look back at all the movies he produced will set the record straight. Like Ronald Reagan after him, he was never a socialist but rather an old-fashioned American Populist, more in the vein of Theodore Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan than a Eugene Debs or Mother Jones. A streak of anti-foreign Nativism is there as well, combined with the Protestant Ethic and Frontier Individualism.

Thus the theme of this film -- labor vs. management -- is resolved through an exercise in solidly pragmatic conflict resolution rather than any victory for revolutionary ideology. Similar themes are to be found in contemporaneous films like "The Grapes of Wrath" or "Sullivan's Travels." While not as lofty as those two, "The Devil and Miss Jones" is a wonderful comedy with a purpose, entirely consonant with its time.

What more can a viewer ask for except color. The script, directing and acting are all very good. Especially Jean Arthur, one of the most underrated actresses of the big screen. This movie shows the difference one man can make. That "one man" is Robert Cummings who has a passion to protect employees of a department story by unionizing them. The store owner (Charles Coburn ~ wonderful acting)decides to gather the facts himself instead of just squelch the union and he discovers more than he thought. He learns about people and about himself in the process. See this movie!

The Devil And Miss Jones (1941) : Brief Review -

Sam Wood back to vibrant feel-good-comedy mode. Jean Arthur & Charles Colburn's merrier pairing before classic The More The Merrier. Sam Wood had been through with a couple of great comedies like "A Night At The Opera" (1935) and "A Day At The Races" (1937) in the 1930s, but his next films lacked the comedy factor. I loved his romantic drama "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1939), but it was not a comedy. He returns to comedy with The Devil and Miss Jones, and what a fantastic comedy he presents. Such a lovable concept that has been influential on many films later with such a good group of actors. Jean Arthur never sounded so cute. I mean, what an adorable accent and expression she gave in the film. Muhhaaa, Kisses! On the other hand, Charles Coburn was a perfect fit for that eccentric character. I loved seeing these two in Frank Capra's classic "The More The Merrier" (1943), and this film was just a good, happy, vibrant rehearsal of that. Although they were not a romantic couple in either of the films, their chemistry has been phenomenal. This film has the good support of Robert Cummings and Spring Byington, who play the main supporting characters. Cummings' speech in the court against the cop was so freaking hilarious, and Byington made such a delightful old lady. The Devil And Miss Jones has so many good scenes that I enjoyed and will remember for some time. Arthur's monologue about love and women's love, as well as Colburn's witty one-liners with a rich accent. "I'm worried, Elizabeth won't marry me," he says when you think he is serious. What great humour it was. Sam Wood presents a feel-good tale of a tycoon who goes undercover to ferret out agitators at a department store, but becomes one of them, in alluring manners. A definite must-watch for popcorn flick lovers and those who enjoy watching old comedies.

RATING - 7.5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

This film is under the radar for one reason only: character actors Charles Coburn and Spring Byington step from behind the shadow of the leads and take a bite out of the script themselves, and man, what a bite. Not to say that Jean Arthur and Robert Cummings don't do their part, because they do, but the emphasis here is on the old folks for a change, and its a refreshing change. There's also a scene on Coney Island, back when it was the shizzle, and its a wonderful scene for warmly placing you there in the midst of a steaming humanity all trying to cool off. There's a Caprasque story impetus about the problems of the rich versus the poor, along with some liberal solutions to those problems, but what's really nice is about watching folks who are past redemption finding it at the most unexpected time of life. Hope for everyone here. Too bad its only a movie.

When THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES deals with grumpy CHARLES COBURN and his investigation into the workers in his department store (he's heard they're backing union demands for a strike), it hits some of the right buttons and is right on target as a social comedy. But when it veers into other sub-plots and then the romance angle between a couple of the co-workers, it loses steam as a comedy. The result is a mixed bag: sometimes a bright, witty, observant comedy about people and their work habits, other times a cornball romantic comedy with too many sub-plots spoiling the cake.

JEAN ARTHUR is at her usual outspoken best and ROBERT CUMMINGS shows a little more backbone than usual as her leading man--but the film really belongs foremost to CHARLES COBURN in another one of his engaging characterizations as the pivotal character who causes all the fuss and bother.

Summing up: Not half as engaging as THE MORE THE MERRIER, but the Norman Krasna script has some delightful observations to make about the work place.

Yet another movie that reminds us there was a good reason to sic HUAC on Hollywood to root out the Reds. This movie is more irritating than funny. The performances strained - maybe career worsts by each of the main actors. A bunch of face-pulling and farcical jumping around. Dead-flat cinematography, to boot. I bet it didn't cost more than a buck-95 to shoot this movie.