1h 21min | Comedy, Romance | 21 March 1940
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Stars: Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas, Harry Davenport.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033174/
Antecedent to Three For the Show ('55).
Same source: Based on the 1919 play Too Many Husbands by W. Somerset Maugham.
This is cuter, more personal, with a very funny ending.
Makes me nostalgic for pre-war (pre-US involvement) films.
The primary differences:
- Regular full-screen, not letterboxed Cinemascope, which creates distance between viewer and subject on a modern TV.
- Not a musical.
- The men are partners in a publishing company, not writing/performing partners.
- The 2nd woman interested in both men is their secretary, and doesn't continue to be involved in the dilemma after 1 scene with JA.
- How the final decision is determined.
- Not as sexually suggestive; JA likes the double attention, not necessarily in bed.
- No fantasy/dream sequences.
