Directed by George Stevens
and starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn, this comedy makes
light of the housing shortage in Washington D.C. during WWII. Retired
millionaire Benjamin Dingle comes to D.C. as an adviser for the housing crisis.
Unfortunately he cannot find a place to stay right away. By chance he happens
upon an ad for a room the only thing is that the other tenant is a young woman.
Mr. Dingle will not take no for an answer and despite her misgivings she agrees
to let him stay. It soon proves to be a hilarious situation and it gets even
more complicated when Dingle rents half of his half to a Sergeant Joe Carter
who is about to ship out. Of course he doesn’t tell Connie. There is initial
conflict however Dingle tries to play matchmaker. The only problem is that
Connie is already engaged to a bureaucrat. Then Dingle oversteps his boundaries
reading Ms. Milligan’s diary to Joe. Dingle accepts the responsibility and
leaves but Connie allows Joe to stay since he will be gone soon. Through a
series of events the newspaper gets a hold of the situation so Mr. Dingle
advises them to get married to stop a scandal. As Joe gets ready to leave they
realize they really do care for each other and Dingle was right Connie finally
gave into her true feelings. All the main players were good and I think Charles
Coburn was really the standout because he was the character who kept the whole
story together. As is his motto, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”
4.5/5 Stars
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