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Patricia Neal in her screen debut is "Mary" and she loves "John," played by Ronald Reagan in this lightweight comedy, "John Loves Mary." She expects him home from service any day and wants the moment when he sees her to be just right, with "Someone to Watch Over Me" playing. But things are never that easy. Not with fellow serviceman Jack Carson involved. Jack did save his life once. Therefore, Ronnie felt indebted to him. But an attempt to help Jack out with his love life backfires on Ronald and he and Patricia have to wait to get married due to him being married to Jack's foreign girlfriend to bring her into the country. But it seems that upon meeting Jack, he learns that, despite the fact that Jack couldn't live without her, he had married someone else since then. What a pickle! Ronnie is trying to keep all this from Patricia and her politician father, played Edward Arnold. I saw this almost twenty years ago and I thought I had memories of liking it. But upon seeing it recently, I found this to be too stagy, due to its play origins, too silly, and a little annoying at times. One would probably like this for the people in it, but the situations feel forced to me and I really didn't find it to be that funny. In fact, afterwards I felt that it wasted the stars and it was all a to-do over nothing, despite the affable dispositions of Ronnie and company.

John Loves Mary was a popular post World War II Broadway hit that ran for 423 performances written by Norman Krasna. Movies and plays about returning servicemen from World War II were glutting the market at this time. Everything from The Best Years Of Our Lives to Buck Privates Come Home to run the gamut from the serious to the funny.

On Broadway the cast included William Prince, Nina Foch, Tom Ewell, and Lyle Bettger in the roles that Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson, and Wayne Morris repeated on screen. The one that really doesn't compute is Lyle Bettger who played such a lovely variety of psychos on the screen. I just can't see him doing comedy or it must have been quite different his interpretation of the blowhard ex-officer that Wayne Morris was. Actually all the stage cast members did have some substantial screen careers.

Reagan is the John in the film who is coming home to his fiancé Mary played by Patricia Neal in her screen debut. He did real well for himself she being the daughter of US Senator Edward Arnold and Katharine Alexander with a lovely Park Avenue apartment. But it turns out that there's a slight hitch in the wedding plans.

What a guy won't do for a friend, especially one who saved his life during the war. Jack Carson who got his discharge earlier from Uncle Sam is pining over the British girl he left behind. Well Reagan knowing the problem that folks were having coming to America with immigration hurdles, marries Virginia Field and gets over as the bride of a GI. The idea being that they'd take a quick trip to Reno and then Jack Carson can marry her.

All that's needed is a ruse to get Reagan out to Nevada without Neal. And that's what the rest of John Loves Mary is about. It all resolves itself in an interesting way showing none of these people taking those sacred vows of marriage all that seriously.

John Loves Mary is a pleasant if dated comedy. But it's ironic as all heck that with people having real immigration problems and looking to the USA as a beacon of freedom, I think the joke would fall flat with them. Ditto with gay people who are now trying to get the right to marry seeing these people shifting partners like shooters switching off dice in a crap game.

Anyway I'm sure Norman Krasna who wrote this and Warner Brothers who brought it to the screen weren't thinking that deeply here.

Even at a much younger age, PATRICIA NEAL looked too smart, strong-willed and intelligent to play flighty feminine leads in the kind of wacky romantic comedies the Warner studio was used to churning out. She looks almost ill at ease in a role which calls for a bright-eyed ingenue like Joan Leslie who would have been ideal for this sort of thing.

But the rest of the cast has a high time playing the hi-jinks of a script based on Norman Krasna's Broadway play. Jack Carson is especially able as the sort of lovable dumb guy (with those great double takes that he specialized in) caught up in a situation involving a British woman (Virginia Field) who is supposed to be coming to the states to marry him. When the arrangements are delayed, he meets and marries someone else without telling her. She finally makes it to the states and he and pal Ronald Reagan get caught up in a series of lies that complicate Reagan's relationship with fiance Patricia Neal.

Of course, all of the misunderstandings could have been cleared up if someone just told the truth--but then there would be no picture.

Edward Arnold as a pompous senator (was there any other kind?) and Wayne Morris as a serviceman friend hired to help deceive everyone are both experts in this kind of farce. Kathleen Alexander does a nice job as Arnold's patient wife.

Patricia Neal would have to wait awhile before Warners found some suitable roles for her--but this film debut was almost successful despite the obvious miscasting.

This play ran on Broadway for a very long time and the chemistry between the young actors was palpable, according to contemporaneous reviews. Warner's B-movie company put together this movie, casting a forty-something Ronald Reagan, with limited acting skills, and a newly-minted Patricia Neal, with almost no acting skills at all.

The cast had almost no chemistry and was substantially older than the returning GIs and postwar brides of the play. All of this made a difference. The play was unmistakably good, having sold out its theatre for years. John Loves Mary, the movie, fell flat from the beginning, mainly because when you're dealing with a farce like a Norman Krasna play, you'd better get all your other soldiers in a row. A troupe of older actors, not used to doing this as a play, and not experiencing any chemistry or camaraderie between them, cannot easily force this on their audience.

A Krasna play had to be done with precision and care. The play carried if off. The movie did not.

I don't know who, if anyone, will ever read my review, but if you're reading this you must be a big fan of someone here. Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal . . . Irving Bacon, Edward Arnold. For me, it's Jack Carson: Master of the Double Take. Bob Hope was a much bigger star for certain, but Jack Carson was funnier with those big, over done, expressive, double takes and Bob is believed to have taken Carson's cue. Anyway, in "John Loves Mary", everyone follows Carson and acts over the top. Even Reagan, who usually can't even act surprised, is good here. Easily my favorite Reagan movie. Director David Butler, another favorite of mine, winds up the cast and makes the over acting an important part of the film. The over acting fits, and allows Jack Carson to be Jack Carson. Carson even reacts with his hair in this one! I'm not kidding! Great cast, and when a character acting great like Irving Bacon shows up in a small role, it's 1940s Hollywood Heaven! Best verbal exchange: Lilly: "Tell me, what's it like west of New Jersey?" Edward Arnold as US Senetor McKinley: "REPUBLICAN!!" Hey, if you really love the film AND read this, please drop me a note. "Gone with the Wind" and "Citizen Kane" are great, but there's some great "little movies" that beg to be seen too. Three viewings to date and counting.

Overall, a good cast. This was obviously a much better play as the dialogue suffers from the restrictive censorship code of the time. Patricia Neal's debut demonstrates why she was never known for light comedy. The most curious thing is that the budget is listed as $1.3 million. How is that possible? Similar movies of the day weren't even close to that budget.

I really like this movie. It is just one of those that is fun to watch . . . and re-watch.

Ronald Reagan and Jack Carson are hilarious together. They both are on the edge of a nervous breakdown throughout the story because of all of the trouble they've gotten themselves into. One lie leads to another and their troubles get bigger and bigger.

I think that Patricia Neal does a good job in this role. I think that she was a great actress but I'm not sure that this was the best role for her. The movie was originally planned for Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan together but when the Reagans split up, the part of Mary was given to Patricia Neal.

When I come across people who have not seen any of Ronald Reagan's movies, I think of this one. He does a great job with this comedy.

I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as I do.

Ronald Reagan (he's John) loves Patricia Neal (she's Mary), but he's married to his best friend's girl. There is a very good reason: best friend Jack Carson saved Mr. Reagan's life during World War II and Reagan married Lily to help his buddy out - you see, Lily needs an American husband to obtain passage to the USA. Meanwhile, Mr. Carson has married another woman…

Even for the time, the comedy dialog in "John Loves Mary" must have sounded remarkably unsophisticated; listen, for example, to the scene when Reagan explains how he dealt with "loneliness" during his four years of service. The performances match the low average nature of the proceedings. Most notable as Patricia Neal's inauspicious movie debut. She's good.

*** John Loves Mary (2/4/49) David Butler ~ Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson

This was Patricia Neal's film debut, and in the first fifteen minutes I had to wonder if somebody was going to haul out the vaudeville cane, get her by the neck, and take her offstage. She was completely over the top. But then she gets more believable and settles down. On the surface it is light romantic fluff - Mary (Neal) is waiting for her soldier, John (Ronald Reagan), to come home from war. If you find the first fifteen minutes taxing, stick around. It gets much better.

Very quickly this plot becomes what was intended to be a good deed that turns into a tangle of problems. You see, John ran into his war pal Fred's (Jack Carson's) best girl in England. They would have been married, but Fred could never find her after the war and she was presumed dead. The only way that John could figure to get Fred's best girl -Lilly - into the US was to marry her himself, bring her to the US, get a quickie Reno divorce, and then Fred and Lilly can be married. The problem is, John never bothered to run this idea by anybody else - specifically his fiancee, Mary, and even Fred himself! Very quickly John finds his good deed overcome by events. Let's just say that in Fred's case he made peace with the fact that Lilly was dead and "life goes on". Specifically life is going on when John returns with Fred's wife in labor at the hospital. Plus Mary's parents - her dad is a Senator (Edward Arnold) - want John and Mary to be married in a week!

How will this all work out? Watch and find out. Ronald Reagan just fills the screen with that beaming smile of his. Jack Carson was always great as the guy who would like to be the villain but is just not smart enough to be anything but a patsy. Here though, he is just the nervous victim of circumstance. There are lots of twists and turns in this one and there isn't a boring moment in it. Highly recommended and a great surprise.

Ronald Reagan was usually not at his best in comedy, but here he was excellent, possibly with help from director David Butler.

Some people have complained of Patricia Neal's performance, saying she didn't fit, but she was supposed to be the daughter of a rich couple and I thought she was perfect. In fact, I liked her better as Mary than as any other character I've seen.

Jack Carson could have been toned down a little; on the other hand, Wayne Morris gave one of his best performances, with just the right shading.

Oh, and Paul Harvey (NOT the radio announcer), as the general, was utterly charming, one of his best roles and performances out of hundreds. Interestingly, one of his first movie roles was as a colonel.

The whole cast, in fact, was great.

The story was cute, and there were some really funny moments, although I was fidgeting occasionally when it seemed on-screen delays were about to get everybody caught and in worse trouble.

That problem came from the stage origin. It didn't work perfectly in this film adaptation, but, heck, how much in life is perfect? All in all, "John Loves Mary" is a very good movie, with wonderful players in a generally enjoyable script. I recommend it.

Just saw this today on TCM and really enjoyed it. While the story was in some ways like an extended TV sitcom plot, it was very clever. It kept me smiling and I got at least one big laugh and several smaller ones from this movie. It involves servicemen returning from WWII, problems the war created for separated lovers, and how a little lie escalates to cause big problems. Most of the movie takes place in just a couple of locations making me wonder if it was originally written as a play. The movie had a very good cast. I always have liked Jack Carson and Ronald Reagan had a good touch for this comedy. There were a number of other familiar faces like Edward Arnold and Wayne Morris who were very dependable actors. And the guy who played the general must have been on dozens of TV shows in the 50's through the 70's. While I wouldn't rush out to buy the DVD, it certainly is worth a look on TV. BTW, it wasn't listed in my older version of Maltin's Movie Guide which seems like a curious omission.

"John Loves Mary" is a very funny comedy, loaded with hilarious dialog and some wonderfully wacky scenarios. The plot is preposterous, of course, but that's what makes all the humor. One can think of some other films with far-out plots - things that are so unreal that they wouldn't happen to one in a million or ten million people. But they provide for great comedy that wouldn't be otherwise.

This is the second real hilarious comedy I discovered that stars Ronald Reagan. Just as in the next year's film, "Louisa," Reagan plays a straight character around whom much of the comedy develops. And, as with that film, this one has a tremendous cast all around. Patricia Neal, Jack Carson, Edward Arnold, Wayne Morris, Paul Harvey, Virginia Field and Katharine Alexander all give superb performances along with Reagan's. Patricia Neal makes her film debut here.

The film is based on a 1947 Broadway comedy by the same name that ran for over a year. It must have tickled a lot of funny bones on stage as well. Reagan plays John Lawrence, a returning GI from duty with the occupation forces after World War II. Neal is Mary McKinley, his fiancé. The two are madly in love, and they are filled with joy and happiness with John's return. Arnold plays Mary's dad, Sen. James McKinley, who is not enamored of his daughter's love interest. Alexander plays his wife, Katharine, who thinks John is a fine match for their daughter.

Carson plays Fred Taylor, the war-time buddy who saved John's life, and whom the family all know about from John's letters describing Fred's great bravery. Fred had been back in the States a year, and John called him to have him take his grey suit to Mary's home that day. John wants to change out of his uniform into civies right away, and he wants Fred to meet Mary and her family.

All's happy on the reunion, but John hasn't told Mary about the big favor he did for his Army buddy, Fred. After Fred had left England, heart-broken at not being able to find his English sweetheart, John did come across her. He wanted to do a big favor for his buddy who was in love with the English lass. So, John married Lilly to get her to the States. Once here, he figured they could get a divorce in six weeks and Lilly and Fred could marry. But, when John tells Fred of his surprise, Fred's wife, whom he had married on his return, is in the hospital about to have their first child.

Whether or not any GI did such a "favor" for a buddy after WW II, it sure makes for a plot filled with much laughter. The story has a few twists that will have one rolling with laughter. Paul Harvey is hilarious as Gen. Biddle. Wayne Morris is very funny as the old officer nemesis of two sergeants, John and Fred. But now, Lt. Victor O'Leary is still in uniform - as a head theater usher. Neal plays her part superbly - as the young woman deeply in love with John, then the suspicious woman by John's wanting to delay their wedding, then the hurt woman.

This is one very funny film that's fit for the family and that most people in the 21st century could still enjoy. Here are some favorite lines.

Mary McKinley, "How did John sound to you on the telephone?" Fred Taylor, "What do you mean?" Mary, "Well, I thought his voice was deeper than when he left." Fred, "Oh, well, that could be. He was a sergeant."

Mary McKinley, "Dr. Zueger said the reason we're supposed to be reserved is to show you the difference between us and the foreign girls who throw themselves at you." John Lawrence, "Dr. Zueger is a German spy."

Mary McKinley, with her head on John's chest, "Four years is a long time. You were lonely. You didn't have anybody to talk to." John Lawrence, "I wasn't lonely. There were four million fellas with me."

Phyllis McKinley, "Why, James, you haven't danced with me since the night Coolidge was inaugurated." Sen. James McKinley, "Did we dance that night?"

Phyllis McKinley, "Mary, do you ever think of anything and then decide not to say it?"

Mary McKinley, "The Germans are back to their wives and sweethearts. The Italians are back. The Japanese are back. The only woman in whole world who's being kept apart from the man she loves is... is me."

Sen. James McKinley, "Now, look here, general, I don't want anything done that smacks of favoritism." Gen. Biddle, "Why, senator, I wouldn't show this any more favoritism than I would expect you to show me."

Mary McKinley, "Your duty? Who do you think you are, Nathan Hale?" John Lawrence, " Well, I have to live with myself." Mary, "Well, live with yourself. You're not gonna live with me."

Mary McKinley, "Your darling? I, I couldn't marry anyone so noble and patriotic. I, I'd be too impressed."

John Lawrence, "You saved my life. Now you've ruined it. We're even." Fred Taylor, "Don't say that, John."

John Lawrence, "I don't owe you a thing, not a thing." Fred Taylor, "I'm naming my baby after you - gonna call him John Harold Taylor." John, "He hasn't got a chance."

Fred Taylor, "I carried you 200 yards." John Lawrence, "It wasn't 200 - it was nearer 75". Fred, "It was at least 200." John, "And carrying me behind the lines was a nice way to get out of the shooting - don't forget that." Fred, "Oh, that's a fine thing to say, John."

Phyllis McKinley, "Why, general, what happened to you? Have you had an accident?" Gen. Biddle, "I was attacked by a drunken usher in the men's room of the Strand Theater."